


That Went Well

by bojackscorpse



Category: BoJack Horseman
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Murder, Bojack is Bi, Character Death, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, Nonbinary Character, Parenthood, Transphobia, mr. pb is pan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:09:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 17
Words: 21,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28539387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bojackscorpse/pseuds/bojackscorpse
Summary: After a rumor gets spread around, BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter need to come up with a plan.
Relationships: BoJack Horseman/Mr. Peanutbutter, Bojack Horseman & Original Character(s), Mr. Peanutbutter & Original Character(s)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 42





	1. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At a dinner party, the topic of children comes up. Someone mentions adoption. A rumor spreads around quickly, and BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter need to come up with a plan.

Mr. Peanutbutter looks up from his scripts and glances at the digital clock on one of the bedside tables. The time reads 5:06pm. He’s been looking over his scripts for a bit over an hour now. There’s this movie he auditioned for a few days ago called _Catch_. He loves playing catch, so he thought this would be perfect for him. After reading through the script for the audition, though, he realized it was about playing football, _not_ about playing catch. Mr. Peanutbutter ended up auditioning anyway because the movie might end up being fun, who knows.

Anyway, there’s a soft knock on the bedroom door. “Come in,” Mr. Peanutbutter calls out.

The door opens and in comes BoJack. He glances at the papers in Mr. Peanutbutter’s hands.

“I thought you didn’t want to do that movie,” BoJack says.

“I changed my mind,” replies Mr. Peanutbutter. “It’s something different. And who knows? It might end up being kinda fun.”

“Alright. This is completely unrelated to that, but Erica’s having a dinner party tonight to celebrate finally having the correct number of limbs, or something along those lines. She invited us. You wanna go?”

“Of course! It’s been a while since we last saw her!”

“We saw her last week.”

“Exactly!”

BoJack pauses. “Well, she wants everyone at her house by 7. I’ll let her know that we’re coming. You should get ready.”

Mr. Peanutbutter beams as the horse leaves the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

‘An Hour and a Half Later’ is the song that’s playing on the radio when the two of them get into Mr. Peanutbutter’s car and begin their drive to Erica’s. 

Mr. Peanutbutter exclaims, “Look at us! Heading to our good friend Erica’s house for a dinner party in January 2003!”

“Why did you feel the need to say the current month and year?”

“I don’t know, I just thought it sounded cool because it rhymes.”

“...Okay?”

The two of them chat a bit for the remainder of the drive. Once they get to Erica’s house, they notice her driveway is full and there are already a bunch of cars parked next to the curb. They manage to find a spot right near Jessica Biel’s car. After they get out, Mr. Peanutbutter takes BoJack’s hand and the two of them walk to Erica’s front door.

Erica smiles at the two men and says, “Hey guys! I’m so glad you could come!”

Grinning from ear to ear, Mr. Peanutbutter replies, “Erica! Look at you with the correct number of limbs! You look _amazing_!”

“Thank you, Mr. Peanutbutter. There are a lot of others here already, so you guys can come on in. We’ll eat around 7:30.”

Mr. Peanutbutter eagerly goes inside with BoJack, who lets out a small, awkward chuckle. The pair go around and greet people before somehow winding up in a conversation with Princess Carolyn, Lernernerner DiCarpricorn, and a few others that Mr. Peanutbutter can’t remember the names of.

Princess Carolyn is in the middle of telling a story about one of the other agents in her building when Charley Witherspoon cries out, “Uh, guys? Sorry for interrupting, but, uh, my hand got stuck to this expensive-looking vase and my other hand got stuck to the lightswitch and now I don’t know what to do!”

“One second,” Princess Carolyn quickly says to the group. She gets up, awkwardly gets Charley’s hands unstuck from the vase and lightswitch, and returns the vase to its respective spot on the end table next to one of the couches.

A bit more time passes, and then it’s time for the actual ‘dinner’ part of the dinner party. BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter sit down at one of the dining tables. Erica’s butler - yes, she has a butler - offers their table drinks. 

“Oh I don’t drink,” BoJack says. “I appreciate the offer, though.”

It’s true. BoJack went to rehab in 2001 for a few months and he’s been sober ever since. 

The food and drinks are served, and a peacock at their table starts talking about an award her cousin’s best friend’s daughter won a few months ago. Once she’s done telling that story, the conversation topic switches to the most recent sports game.

“Hey,” BoJack whispers to Mr. Peanutbutter, “why is nobody here talking about me? I don’t wanna listen to people telling boring stories that have nothing to do with me!”

The labrador whispers back, “Well, is there anything interesting that’s happened to you recently?”

“...No.”

“Then why don’t you tell a story anyway?”

“About?”

“You like hearing yourself talk, so why don’t you tell them about the movie I’m most likely gonna be in?”

“But that’s not- ugh. Fine.”

Once one of the eagles at the table stops talking, BoJack tells the table about _Catch_ and how eager Mr. Peanutbutter is to possibly be in it.

The same eagle that was talking a minute or two ago says, “Oh yeah, I guess you guys never heard. I actually got picked to play in that movie.”

Mr. Peanutbutter lets out a barely-audible growl before smiling awkwardly. He replies, “Oh, um, that’s great. Good for you, man.”

A salamander at the table starts talking about her recent trip to Michigan with her daughter. They apparently went to her grandparents’ house, which is in a really small town.

“Do any of you have kids of your own?” she asks when she’s done with her story.

Everyone at their table except for Mr. Peanutbutter, BoJack, Princess Carolyn, and an elephant nod or say ‘yes.’

The salamander turns to BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter. “You two were both on sitcoms for a few years. You’d probably be good at it.”

BoJack awkwardly replies, “Uh, that’s not-”

Mr. Peanutbutter, on the other hand, doesn’t seem too bothered by that idea. “You know what? You have a good point! We’d probably make great dads! What could possibly go wrong, right?”

“Uh,” BoJack responds, “a lot?” He gives Mr. Peanutbutter a look that basically _screams_ that this isn’t a good idea and that he _absolutely should not_ start thinking about it. The labrador chooses to ignore him.

The salamander says, “Yeah! You two could adopt a kid!”

Mr. Peanutbutter smiles thoughtfully. BoJack is trying to make it look like he’s not about to scream.

Around 9pm, everyone’s finished eating and the next hour or two is reserved for socializing.

“Why the _hell_ would you say that?” BoJack asks Mr. Peanutbutter as they’re heading to Erica’s living room.

“What?” Mr. Peanutbutter asks him.

“The thing about us being good dads! That was Sandy Salamander you were talking to! She’s one of the most well-known agents in Hollywood. Also, you were talking loudly. Someone at another table could’ve misheard you and thought we’re _actually_ adopting a kid! People here _love_ gossip, so something like that could probably get spread around quickly and get blown _way_ out of proportion!”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine! Hey, we’ll talk about this later, okay? Erica’s sitting on one of those couches all by herself and I don’t want her to feel lonely.”

“No, don’t go talk to Erica! You said you would stay with me the whole time!” By the time BoJack is done talking, Mr. Peanutbutter is sitting next to Erica. BoJack sighs.

Over the course of the next hour, Mr. Peanutbutter talks to most of the other people at the dinner party. He hears the words ‘adopting,’ ‘BoJack,’ and ‘dads’ being said a lot, but thinks nothing of it.

Eventually, Erica’s dinner party comes to a close and everyone says their goodbyes. In the car, neither Mr. Peanutbutter nor BoJack bring up the subject from earlier. 

They arrive home seventeen minutes later and, after changing out of their nice clothes and into their pajamas, they go into the living room to watch something. BoJack turns on the TV and the first thing they see is Tom Jumbo-Grumbo. The news is on.

There’s a monkey on the screen, too. Mr. Peanutbutter recognizes her as Moxie, a pop artist who toured with Sarah Lynn last year. Moxie was also at Erica’s party.

Tom announces, “With us tonight, we have Moxie. She heard some pretty important gossip that she said, and I quote, ‘everyone absolutely _needs_ to know right now, it’s that important.’ I _was_ going to talk about the thunderstorm that’s happening in a few hours, but this seems to be far more important.”

Moxie says, “Yeah, so, I heard Sandy Salamander say something about children, and that caught my attention ’cause, like, children kinda suck sometimes - no offense to any children watching this, if there even are any. Anyway, Mr. Peanutbutter said he and his boyfriend were gonna adopt a child. He seemed pretty excited about it, so I kinda figured he’d be okay with everyone else knowing about it.”

“You hear that, Hollywood? Mr. Peanutbutter and BoJack Horseman are adopting a child!”

BoJack says, “Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.”


	2. Time to Figure Things Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter try to figure things out, which goes… actually pretty well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry i haven't updated in a few days, i've been really busy with school and i haven't had a ton of time to write

“I told you so,” BoJack says, clearly very irritated.

Quietly, Mr. Peanutbutter asks, “What do we do now?”

“Adopt a kid? Somehow make it look like we adopted a kid? Go to Michigan and try to live a quiet life there, or at least go there until people forget about this whole thing?” BoJack’s pacing around in circles.

“Maybe we _shouldn’t_ do the last one. What if I find a cool greeting card and it turns into a TV show?”

“ _What_ does that have to do with our current situation?”

“I don’t know! I just don’t wanna leave LA! Sorry, am I freaking out too much?”

“Kinda, yeah.”

BoJack sighs and says, “Look, it’s nearly midnight. Let’s just go to bed and we can figure this out tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

* * *

The digital clock beeps a few times. “Good morning, Hollywood! It's 7am the next day, and you know what that means! Time to figure stuff out!”

BoJack groans. He and Mr. Peanutbutter get up and head downstairs to the kitchen. Mr. Peanutbutter starts making breakfast and BoJack sighs.

“I’m surprised Princess Carolyn hasn’t called us about this whole thing yet,” he says.

As if on cue, the phone starts ringing. It’s Princess Carolyn. BoJack answers it.

Before he has a chance to say something, Princess Carolyn asks, “You guys gotta get your shit together! Do either of you have a plan yet?”

“Nope,” BoJack answers.

“You’re both rich! Just adopt a kid so this whole thing blows over!”

“But I don’t think-”

“Sorry, I’m getting another call. Look, just try to come up with a plan and I’ll check back in with you guys later. You think you can do that?”

BoJack hesitates. “Sure.”

“Great.”

BoJack sets the phone down and lets out a heavy sigh. Mr. Peanutbutter puts a hand on his shoulder and says, “We’re gonna be fine.”

“Will we?” BoJack retorts.

“Of _course_ we will!”

BoJack rolls his eyes. “If you say so.” 

_A Few Hours Later_ is the title of the movie BoJack’s watching when Mr. Peanutbutter enters the living room. He has a huge grin on his face.

BoJack pauses the movie and looks at Mr. Peanutbutter expectantly.

“Okay,” begins Mr. Peanutbutter, “I was thinking about this whole situation and I researched adoption. It seems easy enough; I think we should try it.”

The horse sighs. “Mr. Peanutbutter, this isn’t something we can just _try_. Are you _sure_ we should do this? Isn’t there, like, an easier way for us to solve this?”

“Everyone _thinks_ we’re adopting a kid, so the best option would be to adopt a kid. Neither of us can think of anything better, soooo…”

BoJack thinks about this for a moment. “Okay. What do we need to do first?”

“Come with me. I actually wrote stuff down about this.”

BoJack gets up and follows him down the hall to the office. Sure enough, Mr. Peanutbutter actually has a document with stuff about the adoption process written down on it.

Mr. Peanutbutter sits down. “Okay, so first we had to find an agency - which I already did. So now, we have to make a profile.”

BoJack looks at Mr. Peanutbutter’s notes for what needs to be included in the profile. He complains, “Ugh, that’s so much work.”

Mr. Peanutbutter’s about to say something when the phone starts ringing. BoJack says, “Hey, you get started on the profile or whatever. I’ll be back in a bit.”

He goes into the kitchen and answers the phone. It’s Princess Carolyn.

“So, do you guys have things figured out yet?” It kind of sounds like she’s smiling. She’s probably expecting him to tell her that they don’t.

“Yeah, actually. Mr. Peanutbutter has this really long document with notes on adoption. He found an agency and now he’s making a profile.”

“Really?” Princess Carolyn sounds both shocked and relieved.

“Yeah. You sound surprised.”

“Yeah, I’m surprised you guys are actually, y’know, _doing this_. Bef-”

“Alright, this conversation seems to have reached its natural conclusion. I’ll call you if we need any help with this, okay?”

“No, don’t hang up yet, I’m not fi-” He hangs up.

BoJack goes back into the office. Mr. Peanutbutter looks up from the computer and asks him, “Who was that?”

“Princess Carolyn. She said she’s surprised we’re getting our shit together and actually doing this. How’s your thing going?”

“ _Our_ thing,” Mr. Peanutbutter corrects him. “I’m almost done with it. You wanna see?”

BoJack looks at the screen. He actually _is_ almost done with the profile, and it looks good. 

Mr. Peanutbutter suggests, “Since this is _our_ thing, why don’t you add some stuff to it?”

BoJack sighs. “If I must.”

BoJack adds a few things and Mr. Peanutbutter looks at the now-finished profile with a pleased expression on his face. 

They make sure everything is saved. “And now we wait,” Mr. Peanutbutter says.

* * *

The digital clock beeps. “Good morning, Hollywood! It’s 7am on a sunny day in March 2003!”

Mr. Peanutbutter chirps, “Can you believe that?! It’s already March!”

Sleepily, BoJack mumbles, “Seems like it was January five seconds ago.”

“Since then, there has been one birth parent that matched with us, but she changed her mind, like, two weeks ago, so nothing has really happened yet.”

“Why are you saying information we both already know?”

“I don’t know. Helps me remember it better, I guess.”

“...Uh huh.”

‘It’s a Little After 3pm’ is the title of the song that Mr. Peanutbutter’s listening to when he goes to check the adoption stuff to see if anything’s changed. The song ends right as Mr. Peanutbutter gets onto the website and logs in. He grins. They matched with an eighteen-year-old birth parent named Savannah. 

Mr. Peanutbutter gets up and makes his way to the living room, eager to tell BoJack the news. When he gets to the living room, he sees BoJack and Sarah Lynn talking.

“Oh,” she says. “Hey.”

The labrador says, “Hi, Sarah Lynn. What are you doing here?”

“I heard you guys were, like, adopting a kid or something? I came over to see how that’s going. I would’ve done this, like, two months ago, but I’ve been so busy with the new album I’m working on, sooo…”

“Yeah, I was actually about to tell BoJack something related to that.”

“Oh, I can, like, go if-”

“No, you can stay here. It’s fine!”

BoJack looks at Mr. Peanutbutter, waiting for him to say the thing he was originally planning on saying.

“We matched with a birth parent. An eighteen-year-old named Savannah.”

“That’s great,” BoJack says genuinely.

Sarah Lynn chimes in, “Hey, I’m eighteen! I wonder if I, like, know her or something.”

Mr. Peanutbutter beams and exclaims, “Yeah, BoJack! It’s so great!”

“What do we do now?” BoJack asks him.

“I let Savannah’s adoption specialist know that I saw that we matched, and they set up a time for us to call her.”

“Alright.”

Sarah Lynn decides to stick around for an hour or so. Once she leaves, Mr. Peanutbutter goes back into the office and calls Savannah’s adoption specialist.


	3. Discussions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter go on a talk show. Then, they continue with the adoption process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey look i finally updated  
> also there are a bunch of timeskips in this chapter lmao sorry

Cassie, the adoption specialist, says, “Yeah, if that all sounds good with you, you guys can talk to her next Friday at 3.”

Mr. Peanutbutter replies, “That sounds great!”

“Okay, awesome. Call me if you guys have any questions.”

“Will do! Bye!”

“Bye, Mr. Peanutbutter. It was a pleasure talking to you.”

He hangs up the phone and goes upstairs to the bedroom, where BoJack is. Mr. Peanutbutter summarizes pretty much everything Cassie told him.

“That sounds good,” BoJack tells him. “Also, uh, I was supposed to tell you this a few days ago but I forgot… A Ryan Seacrest Type wants us to come on his show tomorrow morning and, y’know, talk about this whole thing.”

“Oh, okay. Sounds good!”

“You took that better than I thought you would.”

Mr. Peanutbutter chuckles. 

* * *

There’s a poster for a movie titled _9am the Following Day_ in the hallway leading to the room where A Ryan Seacrest Type does his show. It’s almost time for them to go on. Mr. Peanutbutter looks over at BoJack and notices his nervous expression. He lightly squeezes BoJack’s hand and calmly says, “Everything’s gonna be _fine_. What’s the worst that could happen? It’s not like he’s gonna expose our deepest secrets or anything.”

BoJack sighs. “You have a point.”

Mr. Peanutbutter listens to A Ryan introduce the show. He hears him announce his and BoJack’s names. It’s time to go in.

Mr. Peanutbutter kisses BoJack’s cheek and they head into the room, sitting down in the two empty chairs opposite of A Ryan.

A Ryan says, “Today, we have BoJack Horseman and Mr. Peanutbutter. How are you guys?”

BoJack replies, “Good, thanks.”

“Good,” Mr. Peanutbutter replies. “How are you?”

“I’m good. So, a while ago I heard you two are adopting a child, is that correct?”

“Yes,” BoJack responds. Mr. Peanutbutter nods.

“How did this come about?”

Shit. Guess they should’ve seen this one coming. With a surprising amount of confidence, Mr. Peanutbutter answers, “I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and I told BoJack. We discussed things, and he eventually agreed to it. Two months ago, our good friend had a dinner party and we decided to announce it there.”

“That sounds lovely. How is the process going?”

Mr. Peanutbutter gives BoJack a look that signifies it’s his turn to answer. BoJack ever-so-slightly shifts in his seat and says, “It’s going pretty well, actually. A birth parent wants to talk to us, so we’re gonna do that next week.”

“Great! Mr. Peanutbutter, you mentioned you’ve been thinking about this for a while. What made you want to do it?”

“Oh, well, I’ve always liked kids, and I’ve kind of always wanted to adopt. I didn’t start actually looking into it until a few months ago, though.”

The next 50 or so minutes go by surprisingly quickly. They end up lying for most of the other answers, but, luckily, nobody seems to notice. 

A Ryan says, “Alright, that’s all the questions I can think of! Thank you both so much for being on the show this morning!”

“Thank you for inviting us,” Mr. Peanutbutter replies. “It was a pleasure to be on your show.” 

“Yeah,” BoJack says, “it was great to be here this morning.”

He and Mr. Peanutbutter exit the room. BoJack lets out a heavy sigh as soon as they get outside. 

“You think anyone will pick up that we bullshitted that entire thing?” he asks.

“I doubt it! See? That went well, didn’t it?”

“Yeah. That went well.”

Mr. Peanutbutter smiles and they begin the drive back home.

* * *

Mr. Peanutbutter’s listening to a song called ‘It’s Time to Call Her’ by a band called Next Friday at 3pm. As the song ends, he realizes - it’s time to call Savannah.

He goes into the office and realizes BoJack is way ahead of him. He’s listening to Cassie explain everything.

“I’ll just be here during the call,” she informs him. “I’m not gonna say or do anything unless there’s a lull in the conversation.”

“Sounds good,” Mr. Peanutbutter says.

“Oh, hey, Mr. Peanutbutter. I was just telling BoJack about what’s gonna happen during the next hour or so. Savannah should be on any minute now.”

Thirty seconds later, Savannah’s on. She says, “Hey, guys. Thanks for, like, doing this. How are you?”

“I’m good,” BoJack answers.

“Good,” replies Mr. Peanutbutter, “you?”

Savannah says, “Good as well, thanks. I saw that you guys were on A Ryan Seacrest Type’s show last Wednesday. That was pretty interesting to listen to. I liked the stuff you guys said.”

BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter look at each other.

“Thanks,” BoJack replies, rubbing the back of his neck.

“’Course. I’m gonna ask you guys some questions, if that’s alright with you.”

“That’s fine,” Mr. Peanutbutter says calmly.

The next hour and a half is spent answering Savannah’s questions. They answer her questions honestly, unlike how they answered most of A Ryan’s questions. Savannah’s very easy to talk to. She’s really nice and has a similar sense of humor to Mr. Peanutbutter’s. BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter end up asking her a few questions, too. 

Before they know it, the call is done. The three of them plan to meet in-person in a few months.

_Three Hours Later…_ is the show that Mr. Peanutbutter decides to put on for background noise while he’s making dinner. He notices BoJack come downstairs. 

“I still can’t believe we’re actually doing this,” BoJack says, walking over to the labrador. 

“Hm?”

“The whole ‘adopting a kid’ thing, obviously. I don’t know, I’m just surprised you wanted to go through with it.”

“Yeah, me too. These past few months have been kinda wild. I like it, though. It’s kinda _nice_ having to deal with this new kind of chaos.”

BoJack lets out a small laugh. “Yeah. I guess it is."


	4. Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter meet with Savannah a few more times before the baby is born. Then, they get a phone call.

Mr. Peanutbutter gets into BoJack’s car and says, “Isn’t it _so great_ that it’s mid-August 2003?”

BoJack starts the car and flatly replies, “Uh, I guess.”

“Since then we’ve talked to Savannah and Cassie a few more times and today’s the day we’re meeting Savannah in-person! She said she has something kind of important to tell us, so that’s exciting!”

BoJack’s about to comment on how stupid it is that Mr. Peanutbutter’s saying this stuff, but he decides not to. Instead, he just hums and turns on the radio. A song called ‘Generic Early-2000s Rock Song’ is playing when he turns it on.

About ten minutes later, they arrive at the Silver Spoon Diner. They go in, sit down at a booth, and wait for Savannah to get there.

A few minutes go by and BoJack notices her come in. She’s wearing black Adidas shoes, dark blue ripped jeans, and a red t-shirt. Her blonde hair is in a low ponytail. 

Savannah sits across from them and sets her purse down beside her. She smiles and says, “I’m glad we could finally meet.”

“Yeah,” Mr. Peanutbutter says, “me too. How are you?”

“Pretty good. You guys?”

“Same here.”

“I’m good,” BoJack replies.

The three of them chat for a few minutes and then order food. While they’re waiting for that to come, Savannah says, “I wanted to tell you - I found out the baby’s gender a few weeks ago.”

“Yeah?” Mr. Peanutbutter says. 

“Mhm. It’s a girl. Oh yeah, uh, have you guys thought about baby names at all? It’s okay if you haven’t, I’m just wondering.”

BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter exchange glances. 

“No,” responds BoJack.

“Okay. What do you guys think of the name Ellie?”

BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter think about this for a moment.

Mr. Peanutbutter smiles. “I love that.”

BoJack nods and replies, “Yeah, I like that.”

Savannah grins. “Alright. Good.”

“Savannah,” BoJack says, “I have a question.”

“Hm?”

“You’ve barely mentioned the, um, the baby daddy. Who is he?”

“Oh, um, it’s my ex-boyfriend, Carl. He was a piece of shit, you don’t really need to know about him.”

BoJack stiffens, getting the impression that he made her uncomfortable. Mr. Peanutbutter notices this and changes the subject to a band he recently got into. 

A few minutes later, their food comes. They eat and chat for a little while longer. 

Eventually, Savannah says, “I should probably get going. It was great meeting you guys, though. Let’s do this again sometime next month, yeah?”

“That sounds good,” BoJack tells her. “It was great meeting you, too.”

Mr. Peanutbutter nods eagerly. “Of course! It was so great to meet you, let us know if you need anything!”

She smiles. “I will.”

BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter head to the car. Inside, BoJack asks, “So, uh, what’s next with all of this?”

Mr. Peanutbutter answers, “Sometime next month, we’ll meet with Savannah again. Also sometime during then, a social worker will come over to make sure the house is childproof. Then the baby is born and, like, three months after that there’ll be a finalization hearing. And for the first, like, six months after Ellie’s born, we’ll occasionally have meetings with the agency to make sure things are going okay.”

BoJack thinks about this for a moment. “That sounds like a lot.”

“That’s because it is.”

BoJack awkwardly rubs the back of his neck. “Riiight.”

* * *

Mr. Peanutbutter turns on the car radio. A song called ‘A Bit Over a Month Has Passed’ is playing. 

“Ready?” he asks BoJack.

BoJack nods and they begin the drive to the Silver Spoon Diner. 

When BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter get there, they notice Savannah’s already there. She smiles at them. 

During this meeting, they mainly just give each other life updates and stuff. It goes by pretty quickly. 

They also discuss Ellie’s middle name and decide on Olivia.

The three of them say their goodbyes and BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter head to the car.

“You know,” BoJack starts, “I just thought of something.”

“And what is that?” asks Mr. Peanutbutter.

“Whose last name will Ellie have? Ellie Horseman-Peanutbutter sounds weird, and I feel like Ellie Horseman sounds better than Ellie Peanutbutter.”

“She’s not a horse, though. She’s a human.”

“Your family all has, like, titles for first names. Like, yours is Mister and your brother’s is Captain.”

“True. Alright, you win.”

BoJack lets out a small laugh.

* * *

_A Week and a Half Later…_ is the title of the book Mr. Peanutbutter’s reading when BoJack comes into the office to tell him that the social worker, who’s named Barbara Fleece, is here. He closes the book and follows BoJack into the living room.

BoJack opens the front door and in comes Barbara. She sits down on a chair and the other two sit on the couch.

“Good afternoon,” she says, “I’m Baaaaaaaarbara Fleece. I’m just gonna ask you guys some questions and look around the house, if that’s okay with you.”

Both men nod.

“Great! Let’s get started.”

She asks them questions similar to the ones Savannah asked them a few months ago. This ends up taking about an hour. Then, she looks around the house to make sure everything is okay. This, surprisingly, doesn’t take long. 

Once Barbara’s done checking the house, the three of them say their goodbyes and she leaves.

“That went better than I thought it would,” BoJack comments.

‘Yeah,” Mr. Peanutbutter replies. “It did.”

* * *

Mr. Peanutbutter had fallen asleep on the couch while watching a show called _October 3rd_. He wakes up to the sound of the phone ringing. 

Rubbing his eyes, he gets up and goes to answer the phone. While doing that, he checks the time. It’s just after 6am.

When he picks it up, he recognizes Savannah’s voice. She sounds stressed.

“Hey,” she says.

“Hi,” Mr. Peanutbutter replies, slightly worried. “Is everything okay?”

“I’m in labor. You guys should probably get here sometime before, I dunno, 8am.”

“Oh, uh… okay. Is there anything else you need from us?”

“Just for you guys to be here as soon as possible.”

“Alright.”

She hangs up. Mr. Peanutbutter goes upstairs to the bedroom and pushes the door open a bit too quickly.

BoJack mumbles, “What the- Mr. Peanutbutter, what the hell are you doing?”

“Savannah!” he exclaims.

“What about her?”

“She’s in labor and she’s probably gonna give birth soon! She wants us at the hospital as soon as possible.”

“Oh shit. Alright, hang on.”

They get dressed and head to Mr. Peanutbutter’s car. They get to the hospital around 6:45am.

“Hey,” BoJack asks the woman at the front desk, “what room is Savannah Wilkers in?”

The woman tells him Savannah’s room number. When he and Mr. Peanutbutter get there, they notice a doctor about to head into her room.

The doctor stops and asks, “Are you two the adoptive parents Savannah mentioned?”

“Yeah,” they answer simultaneously. 

“Okay, great. She wants you guys to wait until after the baby is delivered, if that’s okay. We’ll let you know when you can come in. It might be a while, though.”

“Okay,” Mr. Peanutbutter replies. BoJack nods.

They return to the waiting area and sit down. The next few hours feel like an eternity.

Finally, around noon, they’re told to come to Savannah’s room.


	5. Getting Used to Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ellie is born and BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter try to handle everything.

Mr. Peanutbutter and BoJack quietly enter the room. Savannah is sitting on the hospital bed, holding Ellie. Mr. Peanutbutter smiles as soon as he notices her. He glances at BoJack and notices he’s smiling, too.

“Hi,” Savannah says tiredly.

“Hey,” Mr. Peanutbutter replies.

She looks down at Ellie and smiles. “I’m so glad you guys could make it. I have to fill out some paperwork, do you guys wanna hold her?”

“I’d love that.”

BoJack nods.

Mr. Peanutbutter goes over to Savannah and she carefully hands Ellie over to him. In a soft, higher-pitched voice, he says, “Hey.”

He walks back over to BoJack and they stare at the baby in awe. A few minutes pass, and it’s time for BoJack to hold her.

“Holy shit,” BoJack says after Mr. Peanutbutter hands Ellie over to him.

Lightheartedly, Savannah says, “BoJack-”

He lets out a small laugh and says, “Sorry.”

Once Savannah’s done with the paperwork, she asks to hold Ellie again. The three of them chat for a little while and then it’s time for Ellie to be taken home.

Before they leave, Savannah gives them a few things for Ellie. The three of them say their goodbyes and then BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter head to the car.

“This is going to be a piece of cake,” Mr. Peanutbutter says with too much confidence.

* * *

_Three Months Later…_ is the title of the book that’s laying on the coffee table when Mr. Peanutbutter says, “This is _not_ a piece of cake.”

BoJack’s sitting on the floor, playing with Ellie. 

“What?” he asks, looking up at Mr. Peanutbutter.

“This whole ‘taking care of a baby’ thing. I thought it’d be easy.”

“Well, _of course_ it’s not easy; she’s an infant and this is, obviously, the first kid we’ve ever taken care of.”

“That _is_ true.”

The past three months have been as chaotic and challenging as ever. The first few weeks were probably the toughest. BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter were both incredibly busy during those weeks - both with Ellie and other things they need to do. 

In early December, Mr. Peanutbutter had gone to the Labrador Peninsula for a week to see his brother. BoJack was stuck with Ellie for that week, and it was exhausting. 

Yesterday was the finalization hearing. This went by pretty quickly, thankfully. After the hearing, Savannah and her sister came over for a few hours to see Ellie and check in with them to see how things are going. 

Most of their friends have met Ellie by now, and they love her. They’d all talk about how easy she is to take care of, to which BoJack would usually reply with something like, “Well of course _you_ think she’s easy to take care of; you haven’t had to wake up at the ass-crack of dawn every morning to feed and change her.”

Recently, Mr. Peanutbutter has given her the nickname Muffin. He’s not sure how or why he started calling her that, it just kinda became a thing. BoJack hates it because it reminds him of his _Horsin’ Around_ days.

Anyway, BoJack notices Ellie starting to look sleepy. “I’ll be right back,” he tells Mr. Peanutbutter.

BoJack gets up and carries Ellie to her room. Her room is painted light purple. The furniture in her room is white. Around her room, there are toys and other baby things.

BoJack carefully sets Ellie down in her crib and covers her with a light-purple blanket, one of the things Savannah gave them back when Ellie was born. Then, he goes back into the living room and sits next to Mr. Peanutbutter.

This is one of the rare moments of peace and quiet they’d had since they took her home. During this time, they decide to watch a few episodes of some true-crime show. After a bit over two hours, Mr. Peanutbutter goes to check on Ellie. He notices she’s awake.

He looks at her and says, “Good morning, Muffin.” He picks her up and kisses her cheek. She coos.

‘Around 9pm’ is the name of an episode of some TV show that’s on. Coincidentally, it’s just after 9pm. It’s Ellie’s bedtime.

This time, Mr. Peanutbutter puts her to bed. As he’s carrying Ellie to her room, BoJack says, “Goodnight, Ellie.”

Once Mr. Peanutbutter sets her down in her crib, Ellie looks up at him with big blue eyes. She doesn’t want him to put her to bed just yet.

Mr. Peanutbutter softly tells her, “It’s okay, Muffin, I’ll be back in a few hours.” He leans down to kiss her and then waits for her to fall asleep.

* * *

BoJack wakes up at some ungodly hour of the morning to a loud crash. He gets up, careful not to wake Mr. Peanutbutter. What could _possibly_ happen in spring 2016, which is the season and year it currently is, to make _that_ kind of noise?

The crash sounded like it came from outside, so he heads downstairs and quietly opens the front door. Nothing. BoJack heads back inside and goes to check on Ellie. Her door is shut and he doesn’t hear anything, so he assumes she’s asleep. 

It occurs to him that he should _probably_ check their deck, so he does. The horse’s eyes widen as soon as he goes out onto the deck.

  
“Holy _shit_ ,” he mutters.


	6. Names and Pronouns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BoJack finds out what woke him up and some… interesting events ensue.

The last two letters of the ‘Hollywood’ sign are missing. Now, it says ‘Hollywo.’ BoJack looks down and notices the now-destroyed letters on the ground near Felicity Huffman’s house. A short guy in a red hoodie and yellow beanie flies up on some sort of drone. BoJack’s about to go back to bed and try to ignore this incredibly bizarre situation when the guy flies onto his deck.

The guy says, “Hey, man, are you-”

BoJack cuts him off. “The Horse from _Horsin’ Around_? Yes, I am. What the _hell_ is going on? Follow-up: _why_ the hell is this going on?”

“That wasn’t even what I was gonna say! Look, I was trying to make a giant ‘Todd’ sign, and I needed the middle two letters, so I thought I’d take them from the sign, and that was going well, until I accidentally moved my Drone Throne down instead of up and I accidentally destroyed the letters! Now, this, like, cat guy is looking for the person that did it and I don’t know what to do!”

“Firstly, who is Todd? Secondly, you came here _because…_ ”

“ _I’m_ Todd! I came here because I thought you’d be able to help me! And because your husband is Mr. Peanutbutter, and I’m really good friends with him! Also, I was at your guys’ wedding two months ago.”

“Okay, look. I _guess_ you can stay here for a bit. Don’t do anything else, though, okay? I don’t need you causing any more trouble.”

“You got it. Thanks, BoJack!”

“How do you know my name?”

“Mr. Peanutbutter talks about you all the time. And, you’re famous.”

“Right. Well, I’m going back to bed. Remember what I told you!”

BoJack wakes up a few hours later to Mr. Peanutbutter excitedly saying his name. 

He asks, “Huh? What time is it?”

“It’s almost 11am! Come downstairs!”

BoJack groans. “Alright, fine.”

Downstairs, Ellie’s sitting on the couch eating cereal while Todd’s telling her stories. She notices BoJack come downstairs.

“Hi,” she says. “Did you hear what Todd did?”

“Yes,” he replies. “I was the one who let him stay the night.”

“I can’t believe they did all that by themself,” Mr. Peanutbutter comments.

“ _They_?”

“Huh?”

“You said ‘they.’ Were there _other people_ helping him?”

Todd interjects, “Oh, I guess I never told you. I’m nonbinary and I use any pronouns.”

BoJack comments, “What? But you still look-”

“Oh yeah,” interrupts Mr. Peanutbutter, “when Todd told me that, I started researching stuff about pronouns, and now I use he/him and they/them pronouns!”

BoJack pauses. “But you’re not trans.”

Ellie looks like she’s about to say something. 

Todd says, “You don’t have to be trans to use different pronouns. Anyone can use any pronouns they want. Pronouns don’t always equal gender.”

BoJack raises an eyebrow. “But that doesn’t-”

Ellie interrupts him and says, “Guys, look at the news.”

Everyone turns their attention to the TV. There’s a picture of the ‘Hollywo’ sign.

Tom Jumbo-Grumbo says, “At roughly 3am today, the last two letters of the ‘Hollywood’ sign were stolen and then destroyed. We have no idea who did this, but it was probably for a good reason. Perhaps someone was doing it to impress their friend, or as some grandiose romantic gesture for their partner. Either way, who _knows_ when this… Randy! Did you fall asleep on your keyboard again?! Why isn’t this finished?!”

Tom goes offscreen, presumably to talk to Randy. While this is happening, several Tweets relating to the event are shown.

“Oh no,” Todd says, “I hope Randy’s okay!”

“Forget about Randy,” says BoJack, “what about _you_?! What are _you_ gonna do?”

“I dunno, go back to my apartment and pretend like everything’s normal? What are you gonna do, make a plan to sabotage my rock opera and get Margo Martindale involved or something?”

“You have a _rock opera_?”

“Uh, yeah. It’s a series. The first one’s called _Newtopia Rising, Book One: The Search for a New Utopia_. It came out, like, two years ago. I’m working on the second one.”

“Ooh,” Ellie says. “That sounds cool!”

“It is! Well, thanks for letting me stay here, I should probably go.”

BoJack says, “Oh, you don’t have to-”

He gets interrupted by the front door opening and closing. Todd’s gone.

“That was… _interesting_.”

“Yeah,” Mr. Peanutbutter says, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.

Ellie says nothing. She puts her now-empty cereal bowl in the sink and quietly goes to her room.

* * *

Ellie’s listening to a song called ‘The Next Day’ when Mr. Peanutbutter tells her that Todd’s here again. The song finishes and she goes into the living room. 

“Hi,” she says when she sees Todd. 

They reply, “Hey, Ellie.”

They explain that they’re here to talk about a wacky business idea with Mr. Peanutbutter. Something about opening Christmas stores in April.

“Cool,” Ellie tells them.

Todd smiles and then follows Mr. Peanutbutter to the office. For the next few hours, Ellie watches a movie in the living room, occasionally hearing the two of them laughing. When Todd and Mr. Peanutbutter come back into the living room, Todd announces that they have to go out onto the deck to test something. Ellie watches as Todd goes out and Mr. Peanutbutter carries a few large boxes into the living room.

“Can I go out there?” Ellie asks Mr. Peanutbutter.

“Of course,” he replies. “Go ahead.”

“Okay.” She opens the door and steps out onto the deck, looking over at Todd.

“Hey, Ellie. What’s up?”

“What’re you doing?”

“Just, y’know, looking at stuff. You wanna see the little model of the store I was talking about?”

“Sure.”

Todd opens a box and walks her through each part of the little model. Once they’re done, Ellie asks, “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course! I love questions!”

Ellie hesitates. “How did you know you’re nonbinary?”

“I don’t really know. A few years ago, I guess I realized I didn’t like people _always_ seeing me as a guy and _always_ using he/him pronouns for me. Why?”

“I’ve been thinking about stuff for a few months now and... I think I’m nonbinary.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. And I think I know what I want my name and pronouns to be.”

“Ooh! What?”

“October and they/them.”

“October’s a really cool name!”

“Thanks.” October beams.

Todd tells October about another one of their wacky ideas and then they both go back inside. 

“I should probably go,” Todd says. “Thanks for letting me come over! It was really cool to meet you, Oct- er, Ellie!”

Once Todd leaves, BoJack asks October, “You’ve been smiling ever since you guys came in. What happened? Did Todd tell you about one of his weird adventures?”

“Yeah,” they reply. At least that isn’t a _complete_ lie.

“Oh yeah, uh, why did he almost call you another name?” 

Shit. October’s heart skips a beat.

“I don’t know,” they lie. 

BoJack hesitates. “Alright.”

‘Five Hours Later…’ is the title of the song October’s listening to right before they muster up the courage to come out to Mr. Peanutbutter.

They put their phone in their hoodie pocket and take a deep breath. Mr. Peanutbutter seems more understanding _and_ he uses he/they pronouns, so this can’t be _that_ bad, right?

October cautiously leaves their bedroom and heads to the living room, where they see BoJack.

“Hi,” they say.

BoJack looks up from his laptop and replies, “Hey. What’s up?”

“Where’s Mr. Peanutbutter? I need him for something.”

“Upstairs. What do you need him for?”

“I need his opinion on something.”

BoJack pauses. “What about me?” he asks playfully.

October lets out a small laugh. “It’s, uh, it’s a dog-related thing. You wouldn’t get it.”

“Okaaaay.”

Sure enough, Mr. Peanutbutter’s upstairs. October cautiously knocks on the bedroom door.

“Come iiiiin,” Mr. Peanutbutter chirps.

October goes inside and closes the door behind them. They sit next to Mr. Peanutbutter on the bed.

They ask, “Can I talk to you about something?”

“Of course, hun. What’s up?”

“Okay, uh, I’ve been thinking about stuff for a few months now and… I’m nonbinary. I wanna go by October and they/them pronouns.”

Mr. Peanutbutter smiles. “That’s great. October’s a _really_ cool name! Did you tell anyone else yet?”

“Just Todd. They were cool with it.”

“Do you… do you think you’re gonna tell BoJack?”

“I mean, I’ll have to _eventually_ , right?” They pause. In a much quieter voice, they say, “I don’t think he’d take it well, though.”

Mr. Peanutbutter looks a bit surprised by this. “Why?”

“You saw how he reacted when Todd came out to him earlier.”

“Well… maybe he’s educated himself since then.”

October wants to comment on how _incredibly unlikely_ this is, but decides against it. “...Yeah. Maybe.”

“Well, are you ready?”

“Ready for what?”

“To tell BoJack, of course. It’s okay if you’re not.”

October thinks about this for a moment. Like they said, they’ll have to do it eventually. They should just do it tonight to get it over with.

“Yeah,” they finally say.

“Okay,” Mr. Peanutbutter replies. “I love you.”

October smiles. “I love you, too.” 

They give Mr. Peanutbutter a hug before leaving the room and going back downstairs.

October notices BoJack’s still in the living room. They take a deep breath and hesitantly walk over to him.

“Hey,” BoJack says, shutting his laptop as soon as he sees October. “How did the thing with Mr. Peanutbutter go?”

“Hm?” they respond.

“The dog-related thing you apparently needed his opinion on?”

Shit. “Oh, yeah. It was fine. This is completely unrelated to that, but… can I tell you something?”

Playfully, BoJack replies, “I don’t know, can you?”

October lets out a barely-audible laugh.

“In all seriousness, go ahead.”

October tries their best not to look nervous. “Alright… um, I’ve been thinking about something for a little while now, and I’m, um, I’m nonbinary. I wanna go by October and they/them pronouns.”

BoJack thinks about this for a few seconds and October nervously plays with their hoodie strings. These seconds feel like hours.

“That’s fine,” he finally says.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Wait, was that the real reason you went to talk to Mr. Peanutbutter? To come out to him?”

“Was it that obvious?”

“Yeah.”

October feels their face heat up. Oof. 

BoJack changes the subject and asks October if they want to watch a movie. October tells him they do, and that’s what happens for the next hour and a half.

That went well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaaaaaaa hi
> 
> this was actually pretty fun to write
> 
> also you may have noticed the tags have changed & there's a definite number of chapters in this fic. i finally figured out the ending & stuff so that's fun


	7. The Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BoJack and October visit Beatrice at her nursing home.

Mr. Peanutbutter looks up from his phone and says, “Isn’t it _amazing_ that it’s November 2020?”

October responds, “I mean, I _guess_?”

“Yeah! You’ve been out to pretty much everyone for over four years! And, BoJack has gray hair! _And_ , COVID doesn’t exist in this universe!”

“...What’s COVID?”

“Some virus that exists in another universe. Apparently, if it existed here, we would’ve had to go into quarantine in March! It would _also_ still be really bad now because people didn’t take the virus seriously and follow the rules that were put in place for it.”

“...Huh.”

“Am I the be-”

BoJack comes downstairs and interrupts Mr. Peanutbutter. “Hey, uh, sorry to interrupt whatever weird conversation you two are having, but my mom wants me to visit her tomorrow. I don’t know why, though. Could one of you maybe come with me? I really don’t wanna do this alone, especially considering that I haven’t really seen her since, like, 2016.”

October hasn’t seen Beatrice in a long time, either. They’ve heard so much about her from BoJack, though. Apparently she’s always been super terrible to him and even tried to drown him once.

Mr. Peanutbutter tells him, “Oh, I _would_ , but I have to go out and do a bunch of stuff to promote the next season of _Birthday Dad_. Sorry.”

“October?”

“Uh,” October says, “sure.”

“Alright. She wants us there around noon.”

October awkwardly plays with their hoodie strings. “Okay.”

* * *

The time reads 11:06am. “Ready?” BoJack asks October.

“I guess so,” they reply. He can tell they’re nervous about this. It’s okay, though; he’s nervous as well.

In the car, a song called ‘Generic 2020 Indie-Pop Song’ is playing on the radio. October spends most of the 45-minute-long car ride scrolling through Twitter.

When they arrive at Walnut Springs, Beatrice’s nursing home, the two of them exchange nervous looks. Neither of them say anything as they go in.

The woman at the front desk tells them Beatrice’s room number. When they find it, BoJack nervously opens the door.

He says, “Heyyy, Mom.”

“Oh,” she replies coldly. “It’s you. What happened to the girl? Does she still think she doesn’t have a gender or whatever?”

October and BoJack exchange glances. October nervously runs a hand through their fluffy, dark brown hair.

Suddenly, BoJack says, “I’ll be right back, I have to go, uh, grab something.” He looks directly at October. “Why don’t you come with me?”

A confused October follows BoJack into the hallway. They awkwardly play with their hoodie strings. 

“Heyyy,” BoJack begins awkwardly, “can you, like, pretend to be cis for the next hour or two?”

October replies, “What? No! Remember back in 2017 when she stayed with us for three weeks, a few months after I came out? I tried to do that back then and it sucked. Whether I do that or not, she’s _still_ gonna bring up the topic of my gender identity! It was one of the first things she pointed out when we got here.”

Back in 2017, Beatrice had to temporarily live with them after she tried to fight someone else in her old nursing home, or something like that. When she moved in, October wasn’t out to her. They didn’t _want_ to come out to her, but Mr. Peanutbutter had ended up accidentally outing them. Beatrice was supposed to stay with them for a few months, but that got cut short because October could no longer handle being around her. BoJack sent her to this nursing home.

Anyway, BoJack responds, “Riiiiight. Well, let’s just try and dodge those kinds of questions. Back in 2014 when my memoir came out, I would dodge weird questions all the time. Then again, a lot of those questions were related to my apple fritter phase rather than my gender identity, but still. It’ll work.”

October sighs. “Fine.”

They return to Beatrice’s room and sit down in the two chairs opposite her bed. She gives them a look.

“Well?” she asks. October cocks their head.

“The girl. Is she still under the belief that she doesn’t have a gender?”

“Uh,” October starts, “I don’t think-”

BoJack interrupts them. “Why don’t you… show her some of your photography?”

October mentally facepalms. What the hell is he _doing_?

They shoot him a quick look and then awkwardly get out their phone. As October’s scrolling through some of their photography and explaining each picture, their phone buzzes. It’s a text from Neo, their best friend. It says, ‘may and colt can come next weekend just an fyi.’ May and Colt are two of October and Neo’s friends. They’re all planning on hanging out at Neo’s house next Saturday night.

October quickly replies to the text with a simple, ‘okay awesome’ before going back to the photos.

“Who’s Neo? Is that your girlfriend or something? Don’t tell me you’re a _gay_ , too.”

October and BoJack once again exchange glances. 

“No,” October tells her, “Neo’s just one of my friends.”

She gives them a suspicious look. Even if they _were_ dating - which they’re _not_ \- October still wouldn’t tell her. 

Several weird topics and poor attempts to dodge them later, October looks at the time. It’s just past 1pm, which means they’ve been here for a bit over an hour. 

“Can we go now?” October whispers to BoJack, who nods almost immediately after.

BoJack says, “I think we should get going, Mr. Peanutbutter needs help with something.”

Beatrice looks at him. “That’s a shitty excuse for wanting to leave. But alright, if you must.”

The three of them say their goodbyes. Once he and October get to the car, BoJack asks, “What did Neo want?”

“Hm?” October replies.

They pull out of the Walnut Springs parking lot and begin their drive home. “You said Neo texted you?”

“Oh, yeah. They just wanted to let me know that Colt and May were coming to their house next Saturday. The four of us are gonna hang out.”

“Alright. By the way, I have to go to Angela’s that night. She said she needs to talk to me about something. I don’t know what, though.”

“Angela?”

“Angela Diaz. She was a network exec during the filming of _Horsin’ Around_.”

“Oh. Interesting.”

BoJack hesitates. “Yeah.”

When they get home, Mr. Peanutbutter eagerly runs to the front door. 

“I thought you were out doing promotional stuff for _Birthday Dad_ ,” October comments.

“I did,” he replies. “I got home, like, fifteen minutes ago. How was the visit?”

BoJack stares off into space for a minute or two before finally saying, “Eventful.”

He’s not lying. It was, indeed, eventful.


	8. Sophisticated Adult Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Todd organizes a party to impress someone. October helps them.

The time on October’s phone reads 4:12pm. It’s Friday, and they’ve been home for about half an hour. They’re sitting on the living room couch, watching some cartoon about an angsty zebra. In this episode, the zebra’s arguing with his friend about therapy. It’s more interesting than it sounds.

The front door flies open and October jumps. They pause the show and face the front door. Todd’s standing in the doorframe, grinning ear to ear.

“What are you doing here?” October asks. As they’re saying this, BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter come downstairs.

“Okay,” begins Todd, “I was at a Cinnabunny a few days ago and this _really_ cute girl took my order and when I gave her my money, I slipped a little piece of a napkin with my number written on it between two of the dollars. She texted me later that day, and we’ve been talking, like, as often as we can. Tonight, I wanna throw a sophisticated adult party to impress her. Can one of you, like, help me out?”

“I can!”

BoJack’s about to protest when Mr. Peanutbutter shoots him a look.

“Fine,” he says, “October can help. Who’s gonna come?”

Todd answers, “You guys, obviously. Princess Carolyn and Judah told me to find a bunch of people at VIM who I can hire to be guests. They’re both coming, too. I’m also gonna be inviting a bunch of my _actual_ friends so it won’t feel _too_ staged.”

“So what do you need October for?”

“They’re gonna help me raid the _Birthday Dad_ set for cool furniture and stuff and possibly help me find more people to invite!”

“I’m sorry, _what_?”

“Look, I told Maude the party would start at 8, so we kinda gotta get going now. October, let’s go!”

“Who’s Maude?”

“The girl I like!”

October puts their black shoes on, quickly saying goodbye to BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter. Then, they go with Todd.

“To the _Birthday Dad_ set!” Todd announces.

“...How are we gonna get there?”

“With this!” Todd points to a white truck in the driveway. The words ‘PB 4 GOV’ are crossed out. The words ‘SOPHISTICATED ADULT PARTY’ are written next to it in red paint.

October stares at the truck. “ _How_ did you get this?”

“Oh, it was originally the truck that I was using for our Christmas in April idea, but then that turned out to be a disaster, so I just kept it. Then, when Mr. Peanutbutter ran for governor, he was like, ‘Do you still have that giant truck? I need somewhere to put my campaign stuff.’ and I was like, ‘I do!’ and let him use it. But then, his campaign turned out to be a disaster, too, so he gave it back to me. While I was coming up with my sophisticated adult party idea, I remembered I needed a way to move the stuff from the _Birthday Dad_ set, and I remembered I still have this truck for some reason! So here we are. Now c’mon! We have cool furniture to find!”

October hesitantly gets into the passenger seat. Todd turns on the radio and they begin their drive to the _Birthday Dad_ set.

They get there surprisingly quickly. A squid standing near a bunch of boxes looks up from her phone. “Uh…” she says.

“I’m best friends with Mr. Peanutbutter and this is his kid,” Todd says, gesturing at October. “We’re just here to see some stuff.”

“I don’t think you can- wait, you’re the person who made the _Newtopia Rising_ rock operas! I _love_ your work! Can I get your autograph?!”

“Yeah! I love signing things!” Todd goes over to the squid girl, who pulls out a permanent marker. Todd signs a small piece of paper, earning a squeal from the squid girl. She takes off her clear phone case, slips the paper inside, and puts her phone case back on. 

“Thank you so much, oh my God!” She excitedly runs to her car and drives away.

Todd cheers, “Now we have the place to ourselves! We have, like, three hours, so let’s go!”

The two of them spend the next hour goofing around and piling cool stuff into the truck. Once Todd seems satisfied with what they have, they both head to VIM.

When they arrive, Judah greets them. “Hello, Todd and October.” He shows them a written list of names. “I’ve compiled a list of people who can come to your sophisticated adult party tonight, all of whom are still in the building right now.”

They reply, “Thank you, Judah!”

“Of course. I’ll see you at 8:00 tonight.”

Todd takes the list from Judah and they go inside the building with October. 

“Let’s split up,” Todd suggests. “That way, we can find people quicker!”

“Okay,” October says. “Wait a second, though. I’m gonna take a picture of the list.”

“Smart!”

October takes out their phone and takes a picture of the list. They agree to meet Todd back in an hour. Then, the two of them split up. 

October asks a guy with curly hair and a pink shirt where Princess Carolyn’s office is.

“Uh…” he replies. “The biggest one upstairs?”

“That’s not what I- alright, whatever. Thanks…” They glance at his nametag. “Stuart.”

October runs up the spiral staircase and eventually finds Princess Carolyn’s office. They practically throw her office door open. 

“Princess Carolyn!” they shout. She yelps in response.

October shows her the picture of the list. “Do you know what these people look like?”

Carefully, she asks, “Yes, why?”

“You know how Todd’s planning a sophisticated adult party tonight? They asked me to help them find people from this list. I don’t know any of them except for you, so… can you help?”

She sighs and agrees to help. The two of them leave her office and begin searching for the people on the list.

Nearly an hour later, they’ve found everyone on the list. Princess Carolyn goes back to her office and October meets Todd back in the lobby. They high-five and get back into Todd’s truck.

Once they get to Todd’s apartment, October wonders, “How are we gonna get this stuff in and out of your apartment?”

They answer, “Great question! Mr. Peanutbutter’s gonna help!”

“But he’s not-”

They get interrupted by Mr. Peanutbutter, who seemingly popped up out of nowhere. “Yeah! I’m always happy to help my best friend Todd!”

“...Alright, then.”

The three of them start moving stuff up to Todd’s apartment. They make several trips to and from the apartment; October takes most of the smaller, lighter items while Todd and Mr. Peanutbutter take the bigger, heavier items. 

It takes the three of them roughly 45 minutes to set things up and make sure everything is perfect. Once they’re done, Todd checks the time. It’s 7:43pm, meaning there’s seventeen minutes until the party starts. 

Once the clock strikes 8, Todd lets people in. His entire face lights up as soon as he sees Maude, a bunny with light brown fur. She’s wearing a dark purple sweater and light pink pants.

During the party, October often hears the sentences, ‘I’m starting to think smartphones are actually making us less connected,’ ‘Well, that’s politics for you,’ and ‘Sir, you cannot remove your shoes inside this Applebee’s.’

They find Mr. Peanutbutter sitting on the couch, looking at something on his phone. He says, “Hey, October! Isn’t this party _incredible_?!”

“Yeah,” they reply. “It’s pretty great.”

“”I _know_! I’m having such a good time!” He gasps and jumps up from his spot on the couch. “Erica! Since when do you listen to Fall Out Koi?!”

October watches as Mr. Peanutbutter eagerly walks over to Erica. They awkwardly take a cupcake from the big plate of sweets on the coffee table and look around. Todd and Maude are sitting at the breakfast bar. Todd says something to Maude, and she kisses them on the cheek. October smiles at this interaction.

At one point, October overhears Sarah Lynn comment, “Hey, what if this is the last party I _ever_ go to?”

“What?” they ask her.

“I don’t know. What if I, like, die soon?”

“How would you- are you okay?”

“I think so. Don’t worry about it.”

“Uh… okay?”

A confused and slightly worried October looks around. Todd and Maude are still chatting at the breakfast bar, Mr. Peanutbutter’s enthusiastically telling a story to Erica and a few others, and BoJack’s awkwardly scrolling through his phone, sitting away from most of the other people at the party.

For the rest of the party, October stays close to BoJack. Once it’s over, Todd says goodbye to everyone as they’re leaving. They tell October to stay behind for a minute or two.

“So,” they say enthusiastically, “it was a success! I asked Maude out, and now we’re dating!”

October beams. “That’s incredible,” they say to Todd.

“Hooray! I have a girlfriend!”

October laughs. “Tonight was fun. I’m glad I could help you with everything.”

“Me too! Bye, October! I’ll see you around!”

“Bye, Todd!”

They leave Todd’s apartment and go to Mr. Peanutbutter’s car. On the drive home, Mr. Peanutbutter enthusiastically tells October and BoJack about something that happened to Erica earlier. 

That went well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was really fun to write :D


	9. Worry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> October goes to Neo’s and BoJack goes to Angela’s.

‘6pm the following day’ is one of the phrases that’s trending on Twitter when October opens the app. They’re sitting on the couch, waiting for Colt to pick them up. They’re going to drive to Neo’s together.

Five-ish minutes pass, and October gets a text from Colt telling them that he’s here. They grab their overnight bag and quickly say goodbye to BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter.

Mr. Peanutbutter asks, “You’re sleeping over, right? And Colt’s gonna bring you back here tomorrow afternoon?”

“Yeah,” October answers.

“Alright. Have fun!”

He watches as October goes out the front door. BoJack then tells him he has to get ready to go to Angela’s. While that’s happening, Mr. Peanutbutter decides to watch an episode of _Bones_ , his favorite TV show.

Sooner or later, BoJack’s ready to go. “I’ll be back around 10,” he tells Mr. Peanutbutter after giving him a quick kiss.

That means Mr. Peanutbutter will be alone for a bit over three-and-a-half hours. “Okay,” he replies. “I love you.”

“Love you too.” He watches as BoJack leaves the house. Now, Mr. Peanutbutter’s alone.

The labrador continues watching _Bones_ for about an hour and a half before deciding to make himself dinner. While he’s doing this, he listens to the radio. A song by Animals That Aren’t Glass is playing when he turns it on.

He eats and then decides to watch a documentary about how an idea for a movie eventually became a bimonthly curated box of snacks. Sooner or later, Mr. Peanutbutter starts to fall asleep.

He wakes up sometime later. He fell asleep around 9. There’s no _way_ he only slept for an hour; it seems later than 10 right now. The house is silent except for the TV. All of the lights are off, so BoJack isn’t home yet. Plus, he probably would’ve woken Mr. Peanutbutter up if he was home.

Mr. Peanutbutter finds his phone. The time reads 10:26pm. His heart skips a beat. _BoJack isn’t home yet_.

He calls BoJack. He doesn’t pick up. Oh shit.

His next instinct is to call October. He doesn’t want to bother them or make them worried, though.

He eventually decides to just text them, ‘Have you heard from BoJack at all in the past few hours?’

Almost instantly, they reply, ‘no, why? did something happen?’

He sighs and sends, ‘No, or at least I don’t think so. I was just wondering bc he isn’t back yet’

‘okay. if you need me to i can come home’

‘No, it’s okay. Thanks though’

‘okay. love you’

‘Love you too’

He spends the next few minutes anxiously pacing around until he comes to the conclusion that he should go to Angela’s.

So, he does. Mr. Peanutbutter gets in his car and nervously drives to Angela's. He turns on the radio and listens to whatever song is playing.

‘Don’t go to her house, Mr. Peanutbutterrrrrr. Everything is probably gonna be okaaaaaay. You’ll probably regret it if you end up goiiiiiiing…’

Mr. Peanutbutter jumps at the sound of his name and decides to switch to another station. What a weird song. It reminds him of this one song, he thinks it’s called ‘Don’t Go Back to the Restaurant, Princess Carolyn.’

Anyway, he eventually gets to Angela’s. Lo and behold, BoJack’s car is still in the driveway. Weird.

The front door is ever-so-slightly open. Weirder.

Mr. Peanutbutter pokes his head inside. He can’t see BoJack or Angela, but he _does_ hear BoJack yell something. His yell is followed by a loud crash.

A concerned Mr. Peanutbutter tiptoes inside, going in the direction the sounds came from. He reaches a large room with a fireplace. Fully opening the door, he steps inside the room.

Mr. Peanutbutter’s eyes widen as soon as he sees what’s going on. “BoJack?!” he practically screams.

BoJack’s hands are around Angela’s neck. She’s laying down, gasping for air. Mr. Peanutbutter runs forward and pulls BoJack away from her.

“Mr. Peanutbutter…” BoJack slurs.

Angela sits up, still gasping. “Get the _hell_ out of here,” she says.

Mr. Peanutbutter practically _drags_ BoJack out of the house and into the driveway.

“Why the _hell_ are you here?” BoJack hisses.

“I fell asleep while watching a documentary and when I woke up I noticed it was after 10,” Mr. Peanutbutter explains, his voice slightly shaky. “You said you’d be back by 10 and when I noticed you weren’t home, I got worried and called you. You didn’t pick up, so I drove here. Why- why were you choking Angela?!”

“It’s… it’s a long story.”

“You could’ve _killed_ her.”

BoJack makes a beeline for his car. Mr. Peanutbutter grabs his arm.

“You’re not driving right now,” he says sternly. “Come on.”

BoJack says, “But the car…”

“We can get it tomorrow.”

They get in Mr. Peanutbutter’s car. BoJack looks around. 

“Where’s- where’s October?” he asks.

“They’re staying at Neo’s tonight, remember? And you’re lucky they are; I can’t _imagine_ what it would be like if they saw you like this.”

Mr. Peanutbutter pulls out of Angela’s driveway. The ride home is completely silent. Mr. Peanutbutter has no idea what’s gonna happen when they get home, but he knows that whatever it is, it probably won’t be good.

Eventually, they arrive home. BoJack stumbles inside and starts heading towards the stairs. Mr. Peanutbutter stops him.

He takes a deep breath and says, “Stay down here. We- we need to talk about this.”


	10. Do You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter talk.

Hesitantly, BoJack follows Mr. Peanutbutter to the middle of the living room. Mr. Peanutbutter looks at him, thinking about everything that’s happened in the past half hour. He’s still unable to wrap his head around it.

“You relapsed,” he finally blurts out.

BoJack looks at the floor. “Yeah,” he mumbles in response.

“How did that happen?”

“Angela… she wanted to talk to me about something, and- and, I guess she suggested I drink, so I drank. She told me the thing she wanted to tell me and it made me really mad. Then… _that_ … happened. I’m… really sorry, Mr. Peanutbutter.” 

“What did she tell you?”

“She was bluffing the entire time Herb got fired from _Horsin’ Around_.”

Without realizing it, Mr. Peanutbutter raises his voice. “And that was a good reason to nearly _kill_ her?” 

BoJack freezes. He doesn’t know how to respond. “Uh…” he manages to say.

“You can’t _do_ that, BoJack! You can’t just try and _kill_ someone because they did something to make you mad!” Mr. Peanutbutter’s nearly yelling now. He rarely yells.

“I- I know. I didn’t think it would get that far.”

“What do you _mean_ you ‘didn’t think it would get that far?’ Yes, what Angela did back then was awful, and it was also awful of her to make you relapse and then tell you this thing she’s been hiding for 27 years, but that doesn’t mean you can nearly choke her to death! You could’ve stopped yourself, no?” This is incredibly out-of-character for Mr. Peanutbutter - and he _knows_ it - but he _has_ to keep going with this. 

“...I don’t know.”

“You ‘don’t know?’ I love you, BoJack, _so much_ , but you… you _can’t do that_! It’s not _right_!” Mr. Peanutbutter doesn’t know _where_ he’s going with this, but he _has to keep going with it_.

Silence. Three agonizingly-long seconds later, BoJack sighs and asks, “Do you?”

“Do I what?”

“Do you… do you love me? ’Cause it doesn’t seem like it.”

Mr. Peanutbutter freezes. He feels tears well up in his eyes. Frantically blinking them away, he tries to think of a response.

Finally, he says, “Yes, _of course_ I do, BoJack. Nothing’s gonna stop me from loving you… I mean that. I just…”

BoJack heads towards the stairs. “Where are you going?” Mr. Peanutbutter quietly asks him.

“I… have to go to the bathroom,” BoJack lies. Mr. Peanutbutter’s about to ask him why he doesn’t just use the one in the hallway, but it’s too late. BoJack’s already upstairs.

Mr. Peanutbutter sits down on the couch and anxiously waits for BoJack to return downstairs. A few minutes pass, and BoJack comes back downstairs, carrying a dark red bag.

“What are you doing?” Mr. Peanutbutter asks him.

“I gotta go… somewhere,” BoJack responds.

“BoJack, wait-” BoJack’s gone before Mr. Peanutbutter can finish his sentence. 

The labrador gets up and opens the front door, looking around. He wanders around the yard, looking for any sign of BoJack. Nothing. A sob escapes from his mouth.

Mr. Peanutbutter goes back inside and sits on the couch. He takes a very shaky breath. Another sob comes out. 

The rest of the night is painfully long. Mr. Peanutbutter spends most of the night worrying about BoJack. He tries to contact BoJack multiple times, but gets no response. 

Somehow, he manages to fall asleep around 4am. 

He wakes up roughly two hours later. Still no sign of BoJack.

He’s never been this upset over something before. Not even _Bones_ can cheer him up. Mr. Peanutbutter knew there were times where BoJack and even October felt like this, but _himself_? Never.

Over the next six hours, Mr. Peanutbutter tries to distract himself. As expected, nothing works. Around noon, he gets a text from October saying they’re on their way home.

Oh no. _October_. How in the _world_ is he supposed to explain everything that happened to October?!

Ten minutes pass, and Mr. Peanutbutter hears a knock on the front door. They’re home.

Mr. Peanutbutter stands up, trying to make it look like he _isn’t_ incredibly upset over last night’s events, and opens the front door. He watches as Colt pulls out of the driveway and drives off.

“Heyyy…” October says, their voice becoming less cheery as they drag the word on.

October comes inside and shuts the door behind them. “Did something happen?” they ask, setting their bag down on the couch. “Where’s BoJack?” 

Mr. Peanutbutter gulps.


	11. New Information

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> October and Mr. Peanutbutter try to deal with BoJack’s absence. Also, they find out some shocking pieces of information.

Mr. Peanutbutter sits down on the couch, motioning for October to sit next to him. They do just that.

“BoJack and I…” Mr. Peanutbutter starts, “we… we got into a fight and he… went somewhere.”

October raises their eyebrows. “Where? And what happened before that? You asked me if I’d heard from him.”

“A bit after Colt picked you up, BoJack went to Angela’s. He said he would be back by 10. I fell asleep around 9 and woke up around 10:30 and he- he wasn’t home. I tried calling him and he didn’t pick up, so I asked you. Eventually, I went to Angela’s to see if he was still there and… he was choking her. He had also relapsed. We went back home and he said that she told him something that really pissed him off and he started choking her. I yelled at him and he said he was going somewhere. I haven’t- I haven’t heard from him since.”

October’s eyes widen. “Holy _shit_. Where did he go?”

“I don’t know. New Mexico, Michigan, Ohio, Connecticut, who knows?”

“Uh…”

“Anyway, I’m, uh, I’m gonna go to the store to get a few things. Do you wanna come with?”

“No, I have to do a few things for school.”

“Alright.”

October goes to their room to do homework and Mr. Peanutbutter goes to take a quick shower. At least when he told October what he was going to do, it wasn’t a _complete_ lie. He _is_ planning on going to the store, he’s just gonna drive by Angela’s first to see if BoJack’s car is still there.

Mr. Peanutbutter gets dressed, says a quick goodbye to October, and then heads to Angela’s. During the drive, he also looks out for any sign of BoJack. 

Once Mr. Peanutbutter reaches Angela’s, he gasps. BoJack’s car is gone. His first instinct is to call October.

“Hi-” October starts.

Mr. Peanutbutter interrupts them. “BoJack’s car is gone.”

“Firstly, you _drove to Angela’s_?! Secondly, _what_?!”

“I got curious! What- what should I do?!”

“Cal BoJack, maybe? Or try and talk to Angela? Or both?”

“BoJack won’t answer me and Angela probably _hates_ us.”

“It’s worth a try.”

“Good point. Thanks, October! You’re the best!”

“Don’t do anything dumb! Also if you find out more information ca-” Mr. Peanutbutter hangs up before October finishes their sentence. 

Hesitantly, he calls BoJack next. As expected, he doesn’t pick up. Mr. Peanutbutter takes a deep breath and gets out of his car. He knocks on Angela’s front door - which _isn’t_ slightly open this time - and waits a few seconds before Angela answers it.

“Why are _you_ here?” she asks coldly.

“Heyyy, Angela!” he says. “I was just driving past and happened to notice that BoJack’s car is no longer here! Do you by any chance know if he, like, came by to get it?”

“He’s _your_ husband, shouldn’t _you_ know whether or not he took it?”

“Well, _yes_ , but… he left last night after we had a fight and I don’t know where he is.”

“Holy _shit_ you’re an idiot. Well, to answer your question… no, and I have no idea where his car went. Now leave. I don’t want to see your or BoJack’s face ever again.” She shuts the door.

The labrador sighs and makes his way back to his car. Then, he drives to the store. 

On his way home about 45 minutes later, he gets a call from October.

“Did you find out anything?” they ask, not waiting for a ‘hello.’

“Only that Angela has no idea who took his car or when it happened,” responds Mr. Peanutbutter.

October sighs. “Alright.”

Before hanging up, Mr. Peanutbutter says, “Look, I’m sure everything will be _fine_. He’ll probably come back sometime later today!”

* * *

Everything was _not_ fine and BoJack _didn’t_ end up coming home later that day. It’s been a month since that day and there’s been no sign of BoJack. Literally _no one_ knows where he is.

The past month has been hard, to say the least. Both Mr. Peanutbutter and October have spent almost every second worrying about BoJack. They both tried pretty much _everything_ to try and figure out where he is, and nothing worked. Mr. Peanutbutter has cried pretty much every day, which is weird because he doesn’t usually cry. October has cried, too, but not as much as Mr. Peanutbutter has.

Anyway, Mr. Peanutbutter’s making dinner. He decides to put on the news for background noise. As he’s doing this, October comes out of their room. They both gasp as soon as the news comes on.

A picture of Sarah Lynn is on the screen. Tom Jumbo-Grumbo explains, “Beloved actress and pop star Sarah Lynn is dead at age 36. Her body was found in the planetarium. She died after overdosing on heroin while on a month-long bender.”

“ _No_ …” October mutters.

Mr. Peanutbutter comments, “I _know_! I can’t _believe_ it!”

“Did you _hear_ that?! A _month-long bender_! BoJack left a month ago! She and BoJack were still kinda close, I wonder if-”

Mr. Peanutbutter interrupts them. “No, BoJack wouldn’t _do_ that. He wouldn’t go on a month-long bender with his TV daughter.”

“Are you sure? I mean, he _did_ nearly kill someone a month ago.”

“I… I don’t know. I _hope_ he wasn’t involved in this.”

“Me too. I wonder if he knows she died.”

Mr. Peanutbutter doesn’t respond to this.

He finishes making dinner. Neither of them bring up the subject again.

_Three Hours Later…_ is the title of a true-crime show October’s watching when they hear the doorbell ring. Who comes to someone’s house at 10:30pm on Tuesday, December 15th, which is the current time and date?!

October doesn’t see Mr. Peanutbutter come downstairs to get the door, so they anxiously pause the show and make their way to the door.

Cautiously, they open it. Their eyes widen.

“Oh my _God_ ,” they mutter.

It’s BoJack.

His clothes are dirty and ripped and his hair’s a mess. He has dark circles under his eyes.

Mr. Peanutbutter walks over. “Is everything okay? I heard- _BoJack_?!”

Mr. Peanutbutter throws his arms around BoJack, who awkwardly hugs him back. 

When Mr. Peanutbutter finally lets go, he asks, “Where _were_ you?! What _happened_?!”

“It’s… it’s a long story,” BoJack replies. He sounds exhausted. “I’ll tell you guys tomorrow.”


	12. Less-Sophisticated Adult Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> October experiences a traumatic event at a party.

BoJack never _did_ tell the two of them about what happened, or at least he didn’t tell October. It’s been just over two weeks since BoJack came back and things have gone relatively back to normal. 

Tonight’s New Year’s Eve, and October’s going to a party with Colt. Colt had overheard some people in one of his classes talking about it and he decided to ask Neo, October, and May if any of them wanted to come with him. May’s doing something with her ice-skating team and Neo’s in Washington visiting family, so that left only October. October doesn’t entirely know why they agreed to come with; they’re the _last_ person who’d go to this kind of thing. 

Anyway, it’s just after 9pm. While waiting for Colt to pick them up, October examines themself in the bathroom mirror. They’re wearing black shoes, black jeans, a gray long-sleeved shirt, and a black jacket. 

They get a text from Colt informing them that he’s here, and they leave the bathroom. As they’re making their way to the front door, Mr. Peanutbutter asks, “All set?”

“Yeah,” October replies.

BoJack says, “Check in with us at some point. Don’t do anything too crazy.”

October lets out a small laugh. “I’ll try not to,” they reply playfully.

“Don’t be afraid to punch someone if they make you uncomfortable either!” he calls out as October’s leaving. 

“Ready?” Colt asks as soon as October gets in his car. He’s wearing white shoes, black jeans, and a dark blue button-up t-shirt.

October nods and they drive to the party. When they arrive, October looks around. The house is _huge_. There are already a good amount of people here.

The two of them go inside and October immediately sees some familiar faces. They gulp. 

Colt taps them on the shoulder. “I gotta go to the bathroom,” he tells them, “I’ll be back as soon as possible, though.”

“Colt, _wait_ -” they call out. Colt’s gone. 

“ _Shit_ ,” October anxiously whispers.

Some time passes, and Colt doesn’t return. October calls him.

“Where the _hell are you_?!” they practically yell as soon as he picks up. 

“I’m in the backyard,” he replies. “I met this guy and he seems really cool, so I’m hanging out with him for a bit.”

“Colt, you can’t just-”

October hears another person talking. Before hanging up, Colt quickly says, “Sorry, I have to go. I’ll probably still be in the backyard if you need me!”

October groans. They had a feeling this would probably be a bad idea, and this sequence of events is just proving their point.

October practically _sprints_ to the back door. There’s a large group of people blocking the door. They can’t go out the front, either; there’s a large group over there, too, and most of the people in it are people from school. They don’t want anyone from their school except for Colt to see them here. But of _course_ people are gonna recognize them; they’re the child of two very famous actors.

Suddenly, a coyote wearing red shoes, black pants, and a red jersey says, “Hey. Silverman US history first period, right?”

October nervously nods. They recognize him as Anthony Fox. They were paired up with him a few times.

Anthony grabs a bottle and two cups from a nearby table, pouring one half of the bottle into one cup and the other half into the second cup. He hands one to October.

October says, “Oh, I don’t really wa-”

Anthony interrupts them. “Try it. It’s fine; it’ll loosen you up.”

October stiffens. The phrase ‘loosen you up’ doesn’t sit right with them at all. They set the cup back down onto the table. 

“Fine,” Anthony remarks. He doesn’t seem happy that October doesn’t want to drink.

Over the next hour or so, the two of them talk… or, rather, Anthony talks and October gives one-to-three-word responses. Somehow, Anthony isn’t picking up on the fact that October desperately wants to get away from him.

‘Ten-Thirty’ is the name of the song that’s playing when someone says something to Anthony. Anthony turns to October and asks, “Some of my buddies and I are gonna head upstairs. Wanna come?” He gives them a look that basically _screams_ that he isn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer.

“Sure…” October awkwardly replies. With that, Anthony takes their hand and they both go upstairs. 

He leads them into an empty bedroom, shutting the door behind them. He motions for October to sit next to him on the bed. It doesn’t seem like they have any other choice, so they do just that.

Anthony leans in to kiss October. As he’s doing this, he moves his hand onto their thigh. October moves away.

“What’re you doing?” they ask him in a shaky voice. 

“This’ll be fun,” Anthony replies. “Trust me.”

He smiles. Before October can respond to this, Anthony covers their mouth. _Shit_.

What happens next feels like it lasts both a few minutes and a few hours. Anthony finishes and pulls up his pants. 

“That was _great_ ,” he says blissfully. October says nothing.

The coyote asks, “You’re gonna, like, be okay when we go back out, yeah?”

All October does is nod. With that, Anthony leaves the room. As soon as October’s certain he’s nowhere near the room, they sob. They can’t _believe_ that just happened. 

Some time passes and October’s somewhat ready to go back downstairs, so they do. As soon as they get back downstairs, they see Anthony sitting with a group of people, presumably his aforementioned buddies.

He motions for October to come over. October takes a deep breath and does just that. 

“What do you want?” they ask in an irritated tone.

Anthony’s left arm snakes around their waist and he leans in to kiss them again. Without thinking, October punches the right side of his face as hard as they can.

Some of the people around them gasp, some scream, and some whisper to one another.

“Don’t _fucking touch me_ ,” October nearly growls.

Both Anthony and October stumble back, shocked. October sees Colt let go of a guy’s hand and run towards them. He grabs October’s left hand and practically _drags_ them outside to his car.

“What the _hell_ was that?!” he hisses once they’re both in the car.

“I- I don’t know,” October mumbles. “I don’t know why I did that… or _how_. I’m not that strong, I couldn't have hurt him that badly, though.”

“I have known you for eight years, and I’ve _never_ seen you do something like that. You’re- you’re the _last_ person I’d expect to do something like that.”

“He deserved it, though.”

“How?”

“He-”

October notices one of Anthony’s friends running towards the car, yelling something. 

“Drive,” October orders.

Colt quickly starts the car and starts driving. During the drive, neither he nor October says anything. The image of Anthony’s face right before he did… _that_ … to them floats around in October’s mind. 

After a few minutes, October lets out a small whimper. Colt pulls over and says, “Hey, you okay?”

Tears well up in October’s eyes. They try to blink them away.

October takes a shaky breath and says, “Y- yeah. I’m fine.”

Colt doesn’t seem convinced. “What _really_ happened tonight that made you punch that guy?”

October doesn’t respond. Colt thinks for a moment and his expression changes, which makes it clear to October that he has an idea of what had actually happened.

“Look,” Colt says softly, “if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s okay. I’m not gonna force you to.”

He holds out his hand and October squeezes it. “You _need_ to tell me you’re gonna be okay, though.”

“I- I’ll be okay.”

“Promise?”

October hesitates. “Promise.”

For the rest of the drive, October holds Colt’s hand.

A few minutes pass and they get to October’s house. The two of them hug.

Colt says, “Check in with me sometime before you go to bed, okay? I love you.”

October smiles weakly. “I- I love you, too.” 

They’re still mad that Colt left them earlier, but they’d never tell him that, or at least not yet.

October watches as Colt drives away. They unlock the front door. BoJack’s sitting roughly two feet away in complete darkness, his back turned to the door. 

There’s a lamp next to him. He turns it on and spins around in his chair. In a sinister tone, he says, “Hello, October.”

Immediately noticing October’s appearance, his tone completely changes. “...October?”

They don't reply. Instead, they make a beeline for their room and examine themself in the mirror. They look terrible; their hair is messy and their face is red and tearstained. 

The time on their phone reads 11:06pm. October finds their pajamas - gray sweatpants and a dark blue sweatshirt - and heads to the bathroom. They take a long, hot shower, washing every part of their body twice. When they’re done, they make their way into the living room.

In the living room, BoJack’s about to ask October something when Mr. Peanutbutter exclaims, “The year ends in five minutes! They’re gonna do fireworks as soon as the clock hits midnight, do you wanna come outside and watch them? We can see them from our deck!”

October replies, “Sure.” At least _one_ good thing will come out of tonight.

BoJack decides to join them. 

On the deck, Mr. Peanutbutter asks October, “How was the party?”

“It was pretty fun,” they lie. BoJack hears this. He doesn’t seem convinced.

“Good,” replies Mr. Peanutbutter, “I’m glad.”

BoJack looks like he’s about to say something.

Four minutes later, the fireworks go off. Mr. Peanutbutter’s oohing and ahhing as they go off.

BoJack turns to October. “Happy New Year, October.”

October smiles weakly. “Happy New Year.”


	13. Drive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> October sneaks out. Neo finds out about what happened at the party.

_It’s Been Just Over a Week_ is the title of one of the books sitting on October’s dresser. It’s been just over a week since the party, and things have been a bit different. They spent most of New Year’s Day in their room, trying to process everything that had happened at the party. The following day, they’d forced themself to actually leave their room and do things since it was BoJack’s birthday that day. The next two days were spent similarly to how New Year’s Day was spent. Then, winter break ended, and they had to go to school again. That meant they had to see Anthony.

And that went about as well as expected. October could barely focus during some of their classes because Anthony or one of his friends would be sitting a few desks away. They probably won’t tell anyone about what happened, or at least not yet. 

They haven’t really been talking to their friends as much, especially Colt. None of that would’ve happened had Colt just _stayed with them_. He’s apologized to them - and they appreciate that - but they’re not sure if they're ready to forgive him yet.

Anyway, it’s just before 2am on Saturday. October’s about to go to bed when they get a text from Neo. It says, ‘are you free right now?’

October replies, ‘it’s 2am ,,, did something happen’

‘no i can’t sleep and i wanted to talk to you’

‘oh then yeah i’m free’

About fifteen minutes pass and October gets another text from Neo. It says, ‘come outside :)’

A slightly-confused October puts a pair of socks on and then finds their shoes. They cautiously leave their room and listen to make sure that neither BoJack nor Mr. Peanutbutter is awake. The house is silent, so they go out the front door as quietly as possible.

“Oh my God,” they mutter as soon as they see Neo’s car sitting in the driveway.

Hesitantly, they get into the passenger seat. “Why are you-”

Neo interrupts them. “I’m worried about you.”

“You could’ve just, like, texted me, though.”

Neo runs a hand through their fluffy, dark blue hair. “This is gonna sound stupid, but I- I did this because I miss being around you. You’ve been kinda closed-off for the past week and… it worried me. Did something happen?”

October looks down at their hands. Neo asks, “You wanna just, like, drive around?”

October smiles. “Yeah.”

Neo smiles and connects their phone to their car. One of October’s favorite songs starts playing. 

Neo turns the volume up and, for the next hour or so, the two of them drive around Hollywo listening to music. It’s really nice.

Around 3:30, Neo pulls into a random parking lot and asks, “You ready to tell me what happened now?”

October looks at them and replies, “Was the past hour-and-a-half _just_ to make me less anxious about telling you whether or not something happened?”

“Mm, partially. I mainly did this because it seemed fun and I knew you’d enjoy it.”

October smiles again. “I did.”

Neo looks at them expectantly. “So, what happened? Colt told me you punched someone.”

October hesitates before saying, “Fine, I’ll tell you what happened. You need to promise me you won’t tell anyone, though.”

“I won’t, I promise.”

“So, uh, I _did_ punch someone, but it was for a good reason.”

Neo’s eyes widen. “You’re the _last_ person who’d punch someone, regardless of the reason for it.”

“That’s what Colt said.”

“Why’d you punch someone, then? If you, of all people, punched someone, it had to have been for a good reason.”

October hesitates. Here we go.

“Because… because, the guy that I punched, he raped me that night. Colt and I… we went to that New Year’s Eve party and Colt left me to go hang out with some guy and- and this guy Anthony from one of my classes came up to me and started talking to me. Anthony, uh, he tried to make me drink with him but I refused and he got mad about it. After a while he took me upstairs and… _that_ … happened. When I- when I went back downstairs, he put his arm around me and tried to kiss me so I… I punched him in the face as hard as I could.” October pauses. “I’ve never told anyone that.”

“Holy _shit_ …”

October laughs. “Yeah. I’m still kinda pissed at Colt for leaving me alone. Sorry I’ve been kinda distant for, like, the past week.”

“It’s- it’s okay, honestly. And screw Colt for leaving you alone that night.”

“Yeah. Dude almost got a boyfriend while I had one of the worst, if not _the_ worst, nights of my life.” October laughs. “So, uh, you went to Washington to see family, right? How was that?”

Neo lets out a small laugh. “Apart from the constant misgendering and deadnaming, it was pretty fun.”

Neo tells them a few stories: one about how they practically turned their aunt’s house upside down after they couldn’t find their six-month-old cousin, one about how they danced with their eight-year-old cousin in the rain for an hour, and another about how they and their cousins hid in different parts of their aunt’s house after a surprise party went wrong.

The two of them talk about anything and everything for a while. October notices the sun start to rise and checks their phone. The time reads 5:58am.

“It’s been a few hours,” October comments, “maybe we should go.”

“Alright,” replies Neo. They drive October back home.

When they get back, October says, “This was actually really fun. Thank you.”

Neo beams. “I’m so glad. I love you. We can always do this again if you ever want to.”

“Thanks. I love you too.” They hug and October unlocks the front door and creeps inside. They tiptoe to their room, trying to make as little sound as possible.

“What are you doing up?” they hear someone ask. It’s BoJack.

“What are _you_ doing up?” October counters.

“I dunno, I thought I heard something. Did you just come inside? Where were you?”

Shit.

“I… went for a walk,” October answers unconvincingly.

“At 6am on a Saturday?”

“...Yeah?”

BoJack rolls his eyes. “Okaaay.”

October lets out a barely-audible laugh and goes to their room. They take their socks and shoes off and go to bed, falling asleep shortly after. 

That went well.


	14. What Happened

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BoJack tells October about what happened after he left.

A week has passed since October snuck out. It’s also been just over a month since BoJack came home. October has asked BoJack about what happened a few times, to which BoJack usually replied with an excuse as to why he couldn't tell them or something along the lines of, “I’ll tell you another time.” He doesn’t know _why_ he’s so reluctant to tell October what happened - they’re old enough to understand everything and it’s not like they would _tell anyone_ \- he just _hasn’t told them_.

BoJack’s sitting outside on one of the deck chairs, absorbed in his own thoughts when he hears the back door open. It’s October. They sit down on the other deck chair.

“I thought you were doing homework,” BoJack comments.

“I finished,” replies October. “What are you doing out here?”

“I don’t know… just thinking about stuff, I guess.”

“What kind of stuff?”

BoJack shrugs. “Just… stuff.”

October gives him a look that indicates that they don’t fully believe him. BoJack sighs.

“Alright. You wanna know what happened after I left?”

October looks at him expectantly. 

“I went to Sarah Lynn’s house.”

“How’d you get there?”

“Part of me thought it would be a good idea to walk there, so I did. Then, I was like, ‘Hey, Sarah Lynn, my life’s kiiinda in shambles right now. Wanna party?’ and she was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while.’ So, she explained to me that parts of her house were made of drugs, then we both accidentally snorted drywall, and it all kinda went downhill from there.”

“ _Christ_.”

“Yeah, so then we watched a shit ton of _Horsin’ Around_ , she came out to me as lesbian, I threw up in her washing machine, then I told her about what happened between me and Mr. Peanutbutter and we went to Angela’s. When we were, like, a street away from Angela’s, we crashed Sarah Lynn’s car into some kid’s shitty treehouse or something and then her car wouldn’t work so we walked to Angela’s. We broke into her house and she got really pissed and screamed at us ’cause it was, like, 4am and she hates me. Then, we took my car and drove to Tesuque.”

“So you _did_ take the car. Mr. Peanutbutter was freaking out because he’d stopped by Angela’s to see if it was still there and he noticed that it wasn’t.”

“God, Mr. Peanutbutter. When I came back, he kept me up nearly _all night_ talking about how _worried_ he was about me. If you didn’t have school the next day, he probably would’ve made you listen to him, too.”

October says nothing. 

“Anyway, uh, we went to Tesuque and went to my friend Charlotte’s. Sarah Lynn and I… we put on trench coats and spied on her. Charlotte’s son, Trip, saw us and freaked out, so Sarah Lynn gave him some of our alcohol so he’d keep quiet about this whole thing. After a few days, she and I got bored so we went to Diane’s house in Houston. You remember her, right?”

“Yeah. She was your ghostwriter for your book. She seemed really cool.”

“She is. Well, she saw us in Houston and she started _spinning out_ and kept telling us that we ‘had to leave’ and how she ‘wasn’t ready to see me again’ or something like that, I don’t really remember. I didn’t _want_ to go yet, but Sarah Lynn somehow got me to leave, and we came back to LA.”

BoJack noticed October’s facial expression change from a look of curiosity to one of shock and confusion. They’re probably about to be mad at him, if they aren’t already.

BoJack hesitates before telling the next part of the story. “Then, Sarah Lynn mentioned the heroin brand named after me and… and I told her that I had some. I’d never tried it before, _obviously_ , so she suggested we shoot it together. I suggested we snort it instead, so… we did.”

October’s eyes widen. “BoJack…” they mutter.

“So, uh, then I saw this kid that looked kinda like a younger version of my mom and I started full-on _screaming_ at her. Then, I threw up in front of her. At some point after that, we went to this really shitty motel and Sarah Lynn started freaking out and going on about how she hated herself and how we’re all doomed. I tried to comfort her by telling her we can go to the planetarium if she wanted. She wanted to, so we did.”

October flinches as soon as BoJack says the word ‘planetarium.’

“We got there, and at one point she had to go to the bathroom or something, and we split up. Seventeen minutes went by, and she wasn’t back yet, so I went and looked for her. She was dead when I found her. I freaked out, called the cops, and then came home.”

October tries to wrap their head around all of this. “So, you went on a month-long bender, traumatized a bunch of people, and then gave your TV daughter the heroin that _killed her_ all because you didn’t want to deal with your husband being mad at you?”

BoJack looks down. “Well, when you say it like _that-_ ”

“Does Mr. Peanutbutter know about all this?”

“Yeah, he had me tell him everything. He got mad at me again, but _look_! I didn’t leave and go on another bender, so it’s _fiiiine_!”

“That’s… actually pretty far from fine, but alright.”

The two of them sit in semi-awkward silence until BoJack asks, “Hey, uh, remember that party you went to on New Year’s Eve? Yeah, what _happened_ during that? You looked like shit when you came home.”

October says, “O- oh, uh, nothing really. I mean, someone ended up punching someone else, but everything else was normal.”

BoJack doesn’t seem fully convinced. “Were you the one who punched or got punched?”

“Neither. I just know that someone got punched.”

BoJack raises an eyebrow. “How do you _know_ someone ended up punching someone else?”

October’s about to answer when the back door opens. Mr. Peanutbutter walks over and asks, “Heyyy! What’re you guys talking about?”

“Nothing,” October replies.

“Everything,” BoJack says at the same time.

BoJack and October look at each other.

“You know how I-” Mr. Peanutbutter gets interrupted by his phone ringing. He answers it.

As he’s walking back inside, Mr. Peanutbutter exclaims, “Erica! I can’t _believe_ you nearly got run over by a tractor! How’d _that_ happen?!”

BoJack’s about to repeat his question regarding October’s knowledge of the incident at the party when October says, “Well, it seems as though this conversation has reached its natural conclusion.” 

BoJack watches as October gets up and heads inside. Once they’re inside, he lets out a heavy sigh

That was… interesting.


	15. Idiot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A video of October gets spread around, and they don’t know what to do about it.

October’s alarm goes off. It’s 6:30am on February 1st. It’s been just over a month since the party.

_C’mon, idiot, get up,_ October thinks to themself. _You’ve got shit to do today._

They turn off their alarm and make their bed. After that, they get dressed and go into the bathroom to brush their hair.

_Okay, now go eat something. Or don’t. Doesn’t really matter, does it?_

October heads into the kitchen and finds a container of cookies.

_C’mon, if you’re gonna eat something, at least have something_ decent _._

They take three cookies out of the container and start eating them. They look down at the last cookie.

_Nope. Don’t eat that. Put it back and find something else._

They eat the cookie.

_Goddamnit._

Some time passes, and it’s time to go to the bus stop. When the bus gets to the stop, October gets on and finds Neo. As they’re getting on the bus, they notice something. Almost everyone is staring _directly at them_.

_Oh God, people are staring. Shit. Did you somehow spill something on yourself? Does your hair look weird? Does your outfit look really bad?_

“Hey,” Neo says, scooting over a bit so October can sit next to them.

“Hey,” October replies. They lower their voice to a whisper. “Do I look weird? Everyone’s staring at me.”

“No, you look fine. Just- maybe try and stay off social media for a bit.”

“Why?” October opens up Twitter anyway. They see their name trending. 

_Weird._

This isn’t the first time they’ve trended; back in 2016 they trended after they came out, then in 2017 when Mr. Peanutbutter was running for governor, and again in November a few days after BoJack left.

Out of sheer curiosity, they tap on their name and look through some of the Tweets. 

_Ohhh shit, shit, shit, shit, shit._

A video of October punching Anthony is being spread around like wildfire. People are coming up with a bunch of reasons as to why they punched him, none of which are close to the _actual_ reason. 

“Jesus,” October mutters.

“Yeahhhh,” Neo says. 

“Does this mean I’m canceled now?”

“Pretty much everyone hates you right now, so I’d presume so.”

“What the _hell_ do I do?”

“I dunno, do an interview with Biscuits Braxby and clear up the situation? Or just make a super long Twitter thread about it?”

“How would this even- who posted the video?”

“One of Anthony’s friends, Ron, did. Remember a bit over a year ago when he and his friends made their own version of the Hype House and got super popular ’cause of it? Well, Ron is the second-most popular in the group after Anthony. He posted the video on TikTok at, like, 1am today and it went viral. He painted Anthony as the victim.”

_Well this was bound to happen. Good luck getting out of this one._

“You’re _kidding_.”

“I’m not kidding at all. Just try and clear up the situation as best as you can before things get even worse.”

October sighs. Today is gonna be _fun_.

During first period, Anthony’s smiling from ear to ear. October wants to throw up. It’s nearly impossible to ignore him.

For the rest of the day, everyone except for Neo, May, and Colt avoids October. Every time October walks by someone, they’re glared at or people start whispering. Great.

_See? Literally_ everyone _hates you now. Everyone is avoiding you more than they usually do, and people are talking about you. You_ need _to find a way to get out of this, you absolute dumbass._

Finally, the school day is over. October heads to the bus, trying their hardest to ignore people around them. 

“You okay?” Neo asks with genuine concern as soon as October sits next to them.

October looks down. “I have no idea. I’ve never- I’ve never experienced something like this.”

Neo squeezes their hand. “It’s gonna be okay-”

October interrupts them. “It’s _not_ gonna be okay! No one’s gonna believe me when I try to clear up the situation! BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter are gonna _kill_ me!”

Neo leans back a bit, a shocked expression on their face.

_You just yelled at your best friend when they tried to comfort you. Nice going, jackass. What’re you gonna do next, punch them too?_

October looks at Neo. “I- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you. I’m just-”

“It’s fine,” replies Neo. “Well, obviously it’s not _fine_ , but it’s… fine, y’know? You’re really stressed right now and-”

“That’s not an excuse for me to yell at you, though.”

Neo looks at them sadly. “Are you gonna be okay?”

“I- I don’t know, honestly. I have no idea what’s gonna happen.”

For the remainder of the ride, the two of them barely talk. Once October’s home, they notice that neither BoJack nor Mr. Peanutbutter are there.

_Shit. They probably found out._

October looks down at their phone and notices a text from Mr. Peanutbutter from a few minutes ago. It says, ‘BoJack and I are out running a few errands, we should be home in a few hours. Hope you’re having a good day, love you!’

_Okay, at least Mr. Peanutbutter’s unaware of the situation. That’s good, right?_

October goes straight to their room and does their homework. They finish around 5:45 and go on social media. People are sending them death threats. Fun.

October shakes their head and begins typing up a long post addressing and clearing up the situation, just like Neo suggested they do. Eventually, they finish and post it. 

To try and get their mind off of things for a bit, they go into the living room and watch a movie. They can barely focus on it and they end up zoning out about halfway through.

“Hey,” someone says softly after a little while. “You okay?”

It’s BoJack.

_Shit. He’s probably gonna ask you about everything that’s been going on. Think, idiot._

“Yeah,” October replies awkwardly. “I guess I just zoned out for a bit.”

BoJack raises an eyebrow and asks, “You sure you’re okay?”

_Nope._

October nods. BoJack doesn’t push it any more, despite clearly not being convinced.

Instead, he says, “I have to go help Mr. Peanutbutter with a few things. If you need anything we’ll be upstairs.”

“Okay.”

A few hours pass. October gets a gut feeling to go into the living room and turn on the news for some reason, so they do. It’s just after 11pm now. Mr. Peanutbutter’s upstairs, presumably sleeping. BoJack’s at Todd’s, apparently helping them with part of their newest wacky scheme.

As soon as October turns on the news, they gasp. The video of them punching Anthony is being shown.

_Good job, idiot. If you weren’t screwed already, you definitely are now._

October can barely pay attention to what Tom is saying. They watch as Anthony comes on screen. He starts talking, presumably about the video.

October turns off the TV and stares straight ahead, their eyes wide and their mouth agape.

They sigh and go out onto the deck.


	16. Wake Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> October goes to a gathering with some of the most important people in their life.

October knocks on the door in front of them. They’re at a big, pinkish-colored house for some sort of dinner party. After a few seconds, Beatrice opens it. She says, “It’s about _time_ you got here.”

October awkwardly goes inside and goes to what they assume is the living room. The walls are a dark pink and there are framed photographs of them, BoJack, and Mr. Peanutbutter hanging up. BoJack, Mr. Peanutbutter, Neo, Savannah, and Anthony are talking amongst themselves.

“What’s going on?” October asks BoJack.

“We’ve been waiting for you to get here,” he answers. “Now that you’re here, things can get started.”

Out of the corner of their eye, October notices a girl that they can’t quite recognize. She looks _really_ similar to them, though.

“Who are you?” they ask her.

“I’m you, but cishet,” she says. Her voice sounds almost _identical_ to October’s. “You can call me Ellie.”

“ _What_?” October gives her a genuinely confused look.

Ellie’s about to say something when Beatrice tells everyone that it’s time to eat. Everyone goes into the dining room. This room has fancy, dark purple walls and big windows. There’s a table covered with a white tablecloth with a purple streak down the middle. Each chair except for the one at the head of the table is purple with a brown border. The head of the table, though, is white with a brownish-gold border. It’s way taller than the other chairs. It reminds October of a coffin.

Everyone else sits down and October takes the hint that they’re supposed to sit at the head of the table. October hesitantly sits down and looks around. Neo, Savannah, and Anthony are sitting on their right. BoJack, Mr. Peanutbutter, and Beatrice are sitting on their left. At the opposite end of the table is Ellie. Behind Savannah is a closed, bright green door. 

“Where does that go?” October asks, pointing at the door.

“You’ll find out in a bit,” replies Beatrice. “Now I’ll be right back, I have to go get everyone’s food because I apparently have to do _everything_ around here.”

A few minutes later, everyone has their food. Everyone has the same thing: pasta and a tall glass of water. 

October takes a sip of their water and forces themself to swallow it. It tastes like pool water. Weird.

They ask, “Hey, does anyone else’s water taste like pool water? And why does everyone have the exact same thing?” 

Ellie’s grinning. She asks, “Well, what were the last things you ate and drank before you… y’know…?”

“I had pasta for dinner, and…” October pauses and lowers their voice. “ _No_.”

“ _Now_ you’re getting it,” she says. “Anyway, let’s play Best Part, Worst Part!”

“Let’s _not_ ,” BoJack says.

“I agree with BoJack,” October comments.

“Eh, too late,” Ellie says. “I’ll go first.”

October protests, “How can you- you’re literally _a different version of me_. How would you-”

She interrupts them. “My worst part would probably be when you came out as nonbinary-”

October groans. “Are you transphobic?”

“She isn’t,” Beatrice chimes in, “but I am.”

“Fine,” says Ellie. “If you’re gonna be such a big baby about it, I’ll have Neo go next.”

Neo looks around. “Uh, okay. My best part would be when October and I came out to each other. We’ve been friends since third grade, but we didn’t actually become close until the end of sixth grade.”

October smiles.

Neo adds, “My worst part was… actually pretty recent. October was-”

“Ugh, is that _all_ you talk about?” Ellie remarks. “October? Christ, it’s like you’re obsessed with them or something.”

“Well, this _is_ their dream,” Neo counters.

Beatrice says, “Let’s just start the performances.”

“But only two people said their best and worst parts!” exclaims Mr. Peanutbutter. “Let’s at least listen to October’s.”

October smiles. This is good. This means that they’re going to be waking up soon. In every other dream they’ve had like this, they wake up right before the performances start.

“Okay,” they begin, “my best part would probably be when Neo, Colt, May, and I spent a week together at May’s lake house last summer. That was really fun. My worst part would… probably be right now. I mean, almost everyone hates me and no one will listen to my side of the story, sooo…”

“Great,” Beatrice says coldly. “Now we can finally get onto the performances. I’ll clean up the table because, again, I apparently have to do _everything_ around here.”

She opens the bright green door and everyone except for her, October, and BoJack goes inside.

“What are you waiting for?” asks BoJack.

“I’m supposed to wake up now,” October says. “That’s how this dream has gone every other time, but it’s…” They lower their voice. “It’s not happening this time. Why isn’t it happening this time?”

“Follow me,” BoJack says. “I need to show you something.”

They follow BoJack out of the dining room, through the kitchen (which looks identical to the one in _Horsin’ Around_ ), and out the back door. There’s a pool.

“Notice anything?” asks BoJack.

October looks at the pool. Floating in it is a silhouette of their body. They stare at it.

“ _No_ …” they mutter.

BoJack nods. “You know, I was the one who found you like that. I don’t think I’ve ever cried harder than I did when I saw you in the pool. Mr. Peanutbutter cried a lot, too.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Well, _obviously_ , it’s not _okay_ , but…”

“I love you so much, BoJack.”

“I know. I… I love you too.”

“Can I- can I hug you?”

“Yeah. Come here.”

October hugs him, trying their best not to cry. After a little while, they both head to the performance room. The walls are dark purple and there’s a dark brown stage. Everyone except for Ellie is sitting in various kinds of chairs, facing the stage. Ellie’s onstage, holding a microphone.

Ellie announces, “Here he is, folks! The guy with the last name Fox despite being a coyote, captain of the varsity football team, and most commonly known as acf800 on TikTok… it’s Anthony Fox!” 

Anthony goes onstage and starts doing some kind of shitty standup routine while throwing around a football. After a minute or two, October notices a hole starting to form to the right of him. They watch as the football flies out of his hand and into the hole, which is now wide enough for someone to fit in it. Anthony runs over to the hole, slips, and falls into it, yelling. The hole closes.

“What the _hell_ …” says October.

Ellie gets back onstage and announces, “Now, houseplant lover, talented artist, and the woman who’s really only known for being October’s birth mother, we have… Savannah Wilkers!”

Savannah goes onstage. October looks around. Anthony’s, Neo’s, and now Savannah's chairs are gone. 

Savannah holds up a painting of October and begins talking about it. A few minutes pass, and the hole begins to form again. The bigger it gets, the closer to Savannah it moves. Savannah accidentally drops the painting and it falls into the hole. As she’s trying to reach for it, she falls face-first inside it. The hole closes.

Onstage, Ellie announces, “Alright, up next we have the woman who’s probably hated by everyone in her family, a graceful dancer, and the mother of a very famous actor… Beatrice Horseman!” 

Beatrice goes onstage and starts performing an incredibly beautiful dance routine. At one point, she's up in the air. While she’s in the air, the hole forms again. She flies directly into the hole and it closes.

Ellie goes back onstage and announces, “Next up… the kid whose hair you can see from a mile away, Sims enthusiast, and diehard Fall Out Koi fan… Neo Conwell!”

Once Neo’s onstage, they say, “This, uh, this is a cover of ‘It’s All So Incredibly Loud’ by Animals That Aren’t Glass. It’s dedicated to October ’cause this is one of their favorite songs right now and it reminds me of them a lot.”

A piano slowly falls down from the ceiling. Once it’s on the stage, Neo sits on the bench and begins performing the song. 

Mr. Peanutbutter says something followed by, “What is this, a crossover episode?” It’s about time he made one of those jokes.

October watches in awe as Neo performs the song. As they’re performing the outro, the hole forms directly underneath the piano and grows as the song ends. Immediately after the song ends, both Neo and the piano fall into the hole and the hole closes.

October nearly cries. Now, it’s only them, BoJack, Mr. Peanutbutter, and Ellie.

Once again onstage, Ellie announces, “Okay, up next is a guy who makes too many pop-culture references, the husband of BoJack Horseman, and the father of October Horseman… it’s Mr. Peanutbutter!”

Once he’s onstage, Mr. Peanutbutter does a variety of dog tricks. After the tenth one, the hole once again begins to form. As Mr. Peanutbutter’s running around the stage a bit _too_ excitedly, he slips and falls into the hole. It closes.

BoJack and October look at each other. Ellie comes back onstage and announces, “Next up, we have the star of _Horsin’ Around_ and… other shows and movies, the husband of Mr. Peanutbutter, and the other father of October Horseman… BoJack Horseman!”

BoJack gets onstage and says, “October… I don’t even know where to _begin_ , I just-” The hole is already starting to form. BoJack anxiously watches it.

BoJack continues, “I know things have been- I know they’ve been hard for you lately, and I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I know that what you’ve been dealing with has nothing to do with me, but I feel bad. You don’t deserve to deal with all of that.” His voice gets more shaky and uncertain as he goes on.

The hole is less than a foot away from BoJack now.

BoJack finishes, “I love you, October, so much. Please don’t forget that.” He takes a deep breath and jumps into the hole. Once again, it closes.

Ellie grins and goes onstage again. “Last but _certainly_ not least, we have the child of BoJack Horseman and Mr. Peanutbutter, one of the most hated kids at their high school as of right now, and a _gigantic_ pushover… it’s October Horseman!”

October gets onstage. The hole is already formed. They walk over and look at it. Ellie follows them.

“ _No_ ,” they mutter. 

“What’re you waiting for?” she asks. “It’s okay. Just go in. Here, I’ll go first.”

They watch as Ellie calmly sits down and slides into the hole. This time, the hole doesn’t close.

“I… I need to do something really quickly,” October says before running to the door. They need to get out of here.

The hole follows them, growing bigger every second. They run through the dining room and into the kitchen. Tears escape from their eyes.

October goes out the back door and stops. The pool is completely black. Before October can realize what’s happening, they feel themself fall.

The now-gigantic hole closes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaa this was really fun to write


	17. Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> October attends a celebration.

It’s been just under two weeks since October tried to drown themself. Since then, they haven’t really talked about it with BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter, mainly because they aren’t ready to. Their side of the punching story finally got spread around, and people no longer hate them. Last weekend, Anthony and two of his friends died. Anthony had crashed his car into a tree after a party while he was drunk.

Anyway, it’s Valentine’s Day. Mr. Peanutbutter, of course, planned a big party and invited pretty much everyone he knows. He let October invite some of their friends, too. It’s at the same place he and BoJack got married: a nice, white building with a red-orange roof. It’s next to a really pretty beach.

Right now, most of the guests are in the main room, a room with gray walls and a dark brown wood floor. Against the back wall is a table covered by a dark red tablecloth. Atop the table are flowers and various foods. 

All of the guests are wearing nice clothes. Mr. Peanutbutter’s wearing a black suit and a red tie with white bones on it, BoJack’s wearing a dark blue suit with a blue-and-white striped tie, and October’s wearing a black suit with a dark red tie. 

An upbeat song is playing over the speakers. The guests are dancing and talking amongst themselves. Everyone’s having a good time.

The song comes to an end and a calmer, slower one begins. Most of the guests find another person and dance with them. Colt taps October on the shoulder and asks, “You wanna dance?”

October smiles. “Yeah.”

Colt puts his right hand on October’s waist and October puts their left hand on his arm. Colt’s left hand holds October’s right hand. He’s wearing a gray suit and a pink tie. 

“I feel like we haven’t properly talked in a while,” Colt says. “You’re not still mad at me, right?”

October chuckles. “No, I’m not.”

“Good. I’m glad things have gotten better for you recently.”

“So am I. Remember that guy you met at the party? What happened to him? You haven’t talked about him in a little while.”

“Oh, I met up with him the day after the party and we hung out pretty much all day. It was really nice. We started hanging out more, and after a while I thought, ‘There’s no _way_ this is going as well as it is. He can’t be _this_ amazing, right?’ Long story short, I found out he’s _super_ enbyphobic and I don’t tolerate that, so I ghosted him a few weeks ago.”

“ _Wow_.”

“Yeah. What about you? Anything interesting happening?”

“You’re acting like we haven’t talked in years.”

Colt chuckles. “Yeah, I know, but _still_.”

“Well, I nearly died about two weeks ago and I’m no longer canceled. Apart from that, though, not much.”

Colt laughs and then changes his tone to a more serious one. “I’m so glad you’re alive, genuinely. I don’t know _what_ I’d do if you died.”

October smiles at this. “I’m glad I’m alive, too.”

The two of them dance for the rest of the song. When it ends, October hugs Colt.

Once Colt pulls away, October goes out onto the beach. Todd’s looking up at the sky, admiring the fireworks. 

“Hey,” October says, walking over to them.

“Hi,” they reply. They’re wearing a dark red suit with a red-and-white striped tie.

“Where’s Maude?”

“She’s inside getting people’s opinions on ice-cream-flavored ice cream. It’s part of our newest adventure!”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah! She wants to open up her own sweets shop. I’m helping her by suggesting things she can sell there and that’s gonna be one of them!”

“Sounds exciting. What’s the shop gonna be called?”

“Oh, we don’t know yet. This is still a pretty new thing, y’know?”

“Mhm.” October pauses. “Oh yeah, I, uh, I know it’s been nearly five years but… I don’t think I’ve ever actually thanked you for helping me figure out my gender identity, so, uh… thanks.”

Todd beams. “Of course! I’m glad I helped you with that. You remember how I stole the last two letters of the ‘Hollywo’ sign back then?”

“Yeah, of course I do.”

“Well, when I heard you had drowned, I wanted to do something that would serve as a memorial-type thing for you in case you ended up dying. I was gonna replace the last two letters so it would say ‘Hollywood’ again, but I guess the sign people got confused when I mentioned you because now the sign says ‘Hollywooh.’”

“That’s… interesting.”

“Right?!” Todd turns their attention back to the fireworks. Five small fireworks - a blue one, a pink one, a white one, another pink one, and another blue one - go off. “Hey, those fireworks were the colors of the trans flag! What a cool coincidence!”

October smiles. They spot an excited Maude walking over to the two of them. She’s wearing a long, dark red dress. 

She enthusiastically starts talking to Todd about something and October decides to leave them alone. As they’re heading back to the building, they spot Neo sitting on a rock, looking at something on their phone. They’re wearing a pink suit with a purple tie. October sits next to them.

“Hey,” October greets them, grinning.

Neo smiles and puts their phone in their pocket. “Hey, October. You seem happier.”

“I am. What are you doing out here?”

“Taking a small break.”

“Mm.” October pauses. “This is probably gonna sound really weird, but I had a dream about you a little while ago.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Well, okay, it wasn’t _about_ you, but you were in it. You talked about how one of the best parts of your life was when we came out to each other as nonbinary. Then, people were doing performances, and you sang ‘It’s All So Incredibly Loud’ because you knew it’s one of my favorite songs and it reminded you of me.”

Neo lets out a small laugh. “How was it? Did I sing it well or did I completely screw it up?”

“It was really good. You sang it perfectly. It was one of the few good parts of that dream.”

“What were the bad parts?”

“Pretty much every other part of it. I talked to the cishet version of myself, my grandma was getting annoyed because cishet me kept arguing with you, Anthony was in the dream, and BoJack told me that he was the one who found my body in the pool.”

“Wait, _you talked to this cishet version of yourself_?”

“Yeah. I dunno, it was weird. That dream… I had it while I was dying. It was probably the weirdest dream I’ve ever had.”

Neo pauses. “When I found out you nearly died, it scared the shit out of me. I did everything I could to find out what happened and stay updated on how you were. I didn’t go to school until the day you came back.”

“I’m sorry. I regret doing that, I really do.”

“I know. When I found out you were alive, I was so happy that I’d be able to see you and talk to you and hug you again.” They pause. “I’m sorry, this conversation got depressing.”

“It’s alright.”

“I love you so much, you know that?”

“Yeah. I love you too, Neo.”

The two of them sit in comfortable silence for a few seconds. Neo says, “Not to, like, kill the mood, but I have to go to the bathroom. If you need anything, text me, okay?”

October nods. Neo gets up and heads in the direction of the building. October decides to go in as well. On their way in, they see Mr. Peanutbutter standing near the door, holding a plate of honeydew. 

“Hey, Mr. Peanutbutter,” October says.

Mr. Peanutbutter exclaims, “Hey! Are you having a good time?”

“Yeah. This is a really nice party.”

“I _know_! I’m so glad we got so many people to come!”

“Mhm.”

“Oh! Did you see the sign?! It says ‘Hollywooh’ now!”

October chuckles. “Yeah. You can thank Todd for that.”

“I already did! They told me about the reason for it, too! I thought it was really sweet that they did that for you. You didn’t die, obviously, but _still_!”

October rubs the back of their neck. “...Yeah. Have you seen BoJack anywhere? I haven’t seen him in a little while.”

“He’s on the roof, he got a bit overwhelmed earlier and wanted to hang out up there for a bit.”

“Alright. Thanks.”

“Of course. I’d love to stay and chat, but Erica’s standing in that corner all by herself and I’d _hate_ to leave her alone.”

October’s about to say something, but it’s too late. Mr. Peanutbutter’s speedwalking over to Erica. They sigh and look around. Out of the corner of their eye, they see a staircase that leads directly to the roof.

October goes onto the roof and sees BoJack. They sit next to him and say, “Hey.”

“Hey,” BoJack replies, looking at them.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I dunno, Mr. Peanutbutter mentioned that you were overwhelmed so you came up here.”

“Yeah, he’s not wrong. You doing okay?”

“Yeah.” October pauses. “Did I ever mention that dream I had recently?”

“The one you had while you were drowning? You’ve mentioned it, you never told me what it was about, though.”

“Oh, it was really bizarre. You, Mr. Peanutbutter, Savannah, Beatrice, Neo, Anthony, and the cishet version of me were in it. Cishet me argued with Neo and Beatrice got mad about it, you showed me a silhouette of my body in the pool, Anthony did a really shitty standup routine, Savannah showed us a painting of me she made, Beatrice danced, Neo performed one of my favorite songs, Mr. Peanutbutter did a bunch of dog tricks, you gave a small speech about how bad you felt for me, cishet me tried to convince me that everything was gonna be okay, and I fell into a giant hole.”

“That’s… really weird. Who’s Anthony, again?”

“The coyote who died last weekend when he drove into a tree.”

“Oh, right. You seemed weirdly happy when you found out that he died… why was that?”

October takes a deep breath. “Remember that party I went to on New Year’s Eve?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, he… he raped me during that party.” BoJack raises his eyebrows and opens his mouth as if he’s about to say something. “And remember how I mentioned someone got punched at that party? I was the one who punched him.”

BoJack thinks about this. “And you waited until now to tell me this _because_ …?”

“I dunno, I guess I thought you’d be mad at me for punching someone. Don’t- don’t tell Mr. Peanutbutter about all this, please. I’m not ready for him to know about everything just yet.”

“Well, I’m not mad at you. And I won’t, don’t worry.”

“Thank you.”

BoJack pauses. “You’ve seen the sign, right? It’s been changed to ‘Hollywooh.’”

“Yeah, Todd told me about it. They were trying to change the sign to honor me, or something.”

“Mhm, I can’t believe they messed the sign up again. That went well, right?”

October smiles. “Yeah. That went well.”

There’s a longer pause. Neither BoJack nor October can think of something to say next, so they sit in comfortable silence and watch the stars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so so much for reading, i hope you enjoyed the story :)


End file.
